DESFONTAINES (Pierre-François Guyot) & BEL (Jean... Lot 1658

[DESFONTAINES (Pierre-François Guyot) & BEL (Jean Jacques). Dictionnaire néologique à l'usage des beaux esprits du siècle [by DESFONTAINES], with the Eloge historique de Pantalon-Phoebus [by BEL]. sl, sn, 1727. In-12 speckled basane, spine ribbed and decorated (contemporary binding). Covers, spines and corners worn. Missing the top of the title leaf with very small loss of text at the last letter of the first line. Small angular wormholes on the last few pages. This work was intended to bring out "all the vuid and convoluted phrases with which the new scuderis have stuffed their works". The frivolous and refined style, in use at that time, and from which the jargon of the Précieuses Ridicules never approached, passed from the cafés to the most serious courts and "if God had not put his hand to it, the pulpit of the preachers would soon have been infected with the same contagion". This curious volume is thus a survey, in alphabetical order, of the ridiculous vicious expressions used by the principal authors of the time: Voltaire, Crébillon, Moncrif, Fontenelle, Rollin, etc. (Barbier I, 980.)