"Livre des trois imposteurs".

Folio, 26 x 20 cm: [2]-292-[4] pp., framed text in black and red ink, paper, French (light foxing).

Contemp. red morocco, gilt fillet frame with gilt corner dentelles incl. crowned dolphins on boards, gilt-orn. spine with raised bands, green leather title-label, a.e.g. (rubbed with some scratches, lacks of leather on the endcaps, dulled corners). In mod. slipcase.

Rare manuscript copy of one of the most sulphurous, controversial, widely circulated and mysterious texts in the 18th-c. clandestine corpus, about the "imposture" of the founders of the three monotheistic religions (Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed). A French edition, first published in 1719 in Rotterdam under the title "La vie et l'esprit de M. Benoît Spinoza" (in 8 chapters), then revised in 1721 under the title "De tribus impostoribus ou Traité des trois imposteurs" (in 6 chapters), was recently attributed to the Dutch author Jan Vroesen (1672-1725). The text in its final form was edited in 1768 and then re-edited from 1775 to 1796. Some 200 manuscript copies of "Traité des trois imposteurs" are currently known to exist. According to Françoise Charles-Daubert, Dutch booksellers seized the opportunity to publish Jean Rousset de Missy's "Réponse à la Dissertation" de Bernard de La Monnoye, which denied the existence of the Treatise, and to present "L'esprit de Spinoza" as the mythical Treatise. She distinguishes 4 main versions of this clandestine tradition: the Hohendorf manuscript, the 1719-ed., the "Fameux livre des trois imposteurs" (c. 1747) and the 1768-ed. Our copy belongs obviously to the oldest tradition, as attested by the final note in Latin, stating that the text was copied from the manuscript of the library of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736), with the permission of Baron "de Hoendorf", probably Georg Wilhelm von Hoehendorff (c. 1670-1719), who was himself book and manuscript collector and became the Prince's chief literary agent in Western Europe, sending Eugene numerous manuscripts and books from Brussels e.g. Content: long "Dissertation sur le Livre des trois imposteurs", the alleged letter from Emperor Frederick II to "le très illustre Othon", Duke of Bavaria, and 19 chapters.
Ref. Tylus, P. - Manuscrits français de la collection berlinoise disponibles à la Bibliothèque Jagellonne de Cracovie (XVIe-XIXe siècles). Cracovie, 2010, pp. 123-124. - Benitez, M.- "La diffusion du "Traité des trois imposteurs" au XVIIIe siècle", in: Revue d’Histoire Moderne & Contemporaine, 40-1, 1993, pp. 137-151. - Data.bnf.fr. - Cf. Charles-Daubert, F. - "L’Esprit de Spinosa et les Traités des trois imposteurs : rappel des différentes familles et de leurs principales caractéristiques", in: Heterodoxy, Spinozism, and Free Thought in Early-Eighteenth-Century Europe. Dordrecht, Springer, 1996, pp. 131-189.
Prov. Each corner decorated with a pair of dolphins, each in a medallion surmounted by a crown (unident.). - Cholmondeley Library (armorial bookpl. with shelfmarks).