Berthe, ou Le Pet Mémorable. Anecdote du IXme. siècle. Par L.D.L. de Langres, Vincent Lombard de, 1765-1830 - 1807

Paris: Léopold Collin. 1807. First Edition. Hardcover. 14 cm, bound in early/period calf-backed marbled boards; 145 pp. Slight rubbing to boards and board edges; foxing to page edges; contents with foxing to various degrees throughout; half-title with the ink stamp of a previous owner Etude Tissot avocat. VG. >>> A (perhaps justifiably) obscure and uncommon book whose title poem translates as Berthe or The Memorable Fart. The work is listed as no. 68 in the Bibliotheca scatalogica (ca. 1849): "Un vent lâché involontairement procure à la pauvre Berthe un mariage des plus brillants ce qui confirme ce qu on a dit quelque part qu un pet est parfois bon à quelque chose." (An involuntarily released gust of wind provides poor Berthe with a most brilliant marriage, which confirms what has been said somewhere, that a fart is sometimes good for something). The poem is accompanied by notes and essays dealing with flatulence through the ages, as well as the author’s "souvenirs [in verse] de mon enfance." Lombard de Langres was an ardent revolutionary who in later years devoted himself to literary pursuits. OCLC locates only two copies of the work, in the Bibliothèque national and the Royal Danish Library. .