FUSI (Antoine) Lot n° 26

The Mastigophore, or Zodiac Precursor. At which, by Apologetic manner, are broken the calf bridles of Maistre Juvain Solanicque Pénitent Pénitent repentant, Lord of Morddrect, & Amplademus in part, of the coast of Mouë. No place, 1609. Petit in-8, 4 ff.n.ch. and 330 pp. (the pagination jumps from p. 94 to 97): red morocco, triple gilt fillet, smooth decorated spine, inner wheel, gilt edges (second half 18th century binding). Original edition. Incredible pamphlet, by a literary madman, promoter of a new word: tartuffe. The madman is none other than Antoine Fusi (or Fuzy) (1560-1629), parish priest of Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Leu in Paris. He had been denounced by the churchwarden of his parish, who accused him of witchcraft and libertine: nothing surprising when one claims that the fire of a house or chimney is extinguished by the feminine stains of a lunar blood! (p. 20). Animated by vengeance and armed with a sharp feather, he defended himself from his enemy by composing this satire in a Rabelaisian tone: Ha fistulous macerated... You're a wolf fury badeliered. You're stupid and evil, great vicar of the sovereign sower of discord... That you're a discrasized fake raggedy! ... You're an adulterated farcineur, & a farcined freeloader (p. 76). Banned from all ecclesiastical functions thereafter, Fusi was forced to retire to Geneva where he embraced Calvinism. It is in this work that the word tartuffe appears for the first time in French (p. 62: tu n'es qu'une tartuffe), a term borrowed in 1669 by Molière, who spread it widely thanks to the eponymous play. A choice copy, in a fine binding attributed to Derome. Some old underlines. Light wetness to a few leaves, without gravity. Some cuffs a little affected by the bookbinder's knife. (Brunet, II, col. 1427-1428 - Blavier, Les fous littéraires, 2000, pp. 1001-1003: "The quality of the invective has encouraged us to include it in the chapter of literary works" - Brunet, Les