L’Histoire Veritable, ou Le Voyage des Princes Fortunez.

Béroalde de Verville. L'Histoire Veritable, ou Le Voyage des Princes Fortunez. Divisee en IIII. Entreprises.

Illustrated with engraved title, folding woodcut map of the Grand Continent de Moso, and the Plan of the Palace of Secrets. 8vo. 20th century ¼-leather-backed marbled boards; spine with 5 raised bands; morocco label with gilt lettering on spine. A Paris, Chez Pierre Chevalier (1610). First Edition.


According to Paul Lacroix, in his Recherches bibliographiques of 1880, it is thought that this book was suppressed by the authorities shortly after publication, resulting in many copies having their titles excised, making the present copy very rare.

Béroalde's great novel tells of the 'Fortunate Princes,' their voyage to the Great Continent of Moso and neighboring islands, and their adventures there. It is an alchemical novel in its characters, puns, anagrams, and themes. It is a steganographic novel in the sense that it delights in the revelation of hidden things. It is an imaginary voyage to an unknown island, anticipating Gulliver's Travels and many other works. It satirizes Lucian of Samosata in its claim to be a 'true history,' and it satirizes Trithemius in its explicit claim to be a steganographic novel. It is hermetic in its learning, polyglot in its interest, and the first great French oriental novel because of the destination of the fortunate princes. Above all this, it is a dystopian novel because the Great Continent of Moso is not an imaginary best-place, but much closer to the reverse.


Béroalde had close ties to the intellectual and creative milieus of the late 16th and early 17th century, and was under the protection of two conseillers du roi. His writings cover topics as varied as history, mathematics, optics, alchemy, medicine, painting, sculpture, love, silk, etc He wrote in both verse and prose, and in all manner of tones (satirical, moral, spiritual, philosophical, political). Béroalde represents a literature of transition from the Valois court (and the generation of "La Pléiade") to the Bourbon court of Henri IV and the baroque, and (like his contemporary Nicolas de Montreux) he attempted to compete with the translation of foreign masterpieces by the creation of original works in French.

Leather hinges light scuffed; internally clean, with clear print and ample margins. The engraved title shows 2 very small chips from the fore-edge, not affecting the image, some soiling to leaves; folding map shows a very small edge-tear, again not affecting the image; o/w a very nice copy of this rare Hermetic novel.

Complete in all respects.