VOISIN (Joseph de). The Defense of the Treaty of Monseigneur - Lot 285

Lot 285
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VOISIN (Joseph de). The Defense of the Treaty of Monseigneur - Lot 285
VOISIN (Joseph de). The Defense of the Treaty of Monseigneur le Prince de Conti, touching on comedy and shows. Or the Rebuttal of a book entitled Dissertation on the Condemnation of Theatres. Paris, Coignard, 1671. In-4 calf, spine with decorated nerves (binding of the time). Original edition (shared with Billaine) of this rare and sought-after work. Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti (1629-1666), took an active part in the Fronde and had to take refuge in Bordeaux, the last fronde city, before capitulating in 1653. He then obtained permission to withdraw to the Languedoc, to Pézenas in his castle of La Grange-des-Prés. There he met Molière and his troop, who were then criss-crossing the south of France and particularly the Languedoc, and became its protector from 1654 to 1656. In 1655, under the influence of the Bishop of Alet, Nicolas Pavillon, he renounced his libertine life and converted to a life of penance and piety, associated with Jansenism. In 1666, he even came to compose a Treatise on Comedy and Shows in which he condemned the tragedies of Corneille and the comedies of Molière. The Prince's chaplain, Father Joseph de Voisin, had published, in 1667, this Traité de la Comédie et des spectacles, according to the Church's tradition drawn from the Councils and the Holy Fathers, which his late master had composed towards the end of his life. Five years later, he gave it an extension in a voluminous Defence, in which he nevertheless evokes the almost friendly relationship that had been established between the future devout member of the Company of the Blessed Sacrament and the future author of the Tartuffe and the Feast of Peter: "Monseigneur le prince de Conti had had so much passion for comedy in his youth that he maintained a troupe of actors for a long time after him, in order to taste the pleasure of this entertainment more gently; and not content with just seeing the theatre performances, he often conferred with the leader o
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