Relation

[DUFRESNE DE FRANCHEVILLE (Joseph)]. Relation curieuse de différens pays nouvellement découverts; de la manière extraordinaire dont ils sont gouvernés; des moeurs & coûtumes singulières des habitans, & autres particularités très-intéressantes. Donné au public par Monsieur *****.
Paris, Mérigot, Cl.-F. Simon fils, 1741.
8°: a⁸ (-a1, blank?) b⁸; [$4 (-a2,3) signed]; [3-9] 10-30, [2] pp., Modern marbled paper covered boards, smooth spine, red morocco title label on the front board. Some spotting, one leaf repaired at the margin not touching the text, but an agreeable copy. Rare: OCLC lists the BnF and BL ; CCFr also lists Arsenal.

While the work’s title—“[A Curious Tale of Different Recently Discovered Countries]”—suggests a travelog, the narrative has nothing to do with any actual voyage. This curious utopian tale employs allegory and satire to portray an imagined world, in which the principal characters are hidden behind anagrams. The attribution of authorship to Dufresne de Francheville (1704-1781)—who in 1742 was appointed “Conseiller aulique [courtly counsellor]” to Frédéric II (to whom he was close, as he was to Voltaire) is based on the handwritten annotation on the title-page (shown above), which is the same handwriting as that found on the final blank that deciphers the book’s anagrams. See also Quérard II.648