Lot n° 46
Estimation :
8000 - 10000
EUR
MORIN (Simon)
Thoughts of Morin. Dedicated to the King.
Sans lieu, 1647.
In-8 of 176 pp. badly numbered 175 without lacking.
With, in a separate volume in uniform binding:
Factum against Simon Morin.
Declaration of Morin, recently released from the Bastille.
Declaration of Morin, his wife and Miss Mal'herbe.
Arrest de la cour de Parlement.
Procès verbal d'exécution de mort de Simon Morin.
In all, a work and five pieces bound in 2 volumes in-8: red morocco, triple gilt fillet, ornate spines, olive title-pieces, interior roulette, gilt edges on marbling (mid-18th century bindings)
A rare first edition of the Pensées d'un illuminé et hérétique normand (thoughts of an enlightened Norman heretic).
It offers an exposition of the author's doctrine, as well as his spiritual canticles and quatrains.
Born around 1620 in Richemont, near Aumale, Simon Morin is famous for the exaggeration of his religious convictions. Accused of having "been the author of a damnable doctrine which he had taught verbally and in writing, & by which he had seduced & corrupted several people in order to destroy the Catholic religion", and especially because he claimed to be the Son of Man, "Spirit resurrected in glory & incorporated in him & come to earth for his second advent, in order to judge the world & establish the Reign of the Holy Spirit & of glory", Morin was first sent to prison. A repeat offender, he was delivered to the stake with his book in 1663. "In death," judged Michelet, "he did not show himself unworthy of the thinkers who, before him, honored the stake."
He had undoubtedly been denounced by one of his disciples, Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin: "A mystic of the past and eager to give his ecclesiastical patrons proof of his zeal for the faith, in order to erase the libertinism of his youth, he improvised himself as an inquisitor and took it upon himself to have Simon Morin arrested and convicted. A visionary himself, author of works which, for strangeness and apocalyptic form, do not yield in any way to the Pensées, he showed all the more relentlessness against the unfortunate enlightened man as he saw in him a rival of glory, a man capable of hindering his own mission" (Paul Alphandéry, Le Procès de Simon Morin in Revue d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, 1899, I, n° 5, pp. 475-490).
Girardot de Préfond, to whom the copy belonged, had five documents concerning the trials against the author bound in a separate volume: - Factum contre Simon Morin, Dans lequel se trouve l'Analyse des Ouvrages de ce Fanatique. Without place or date. 25 pp.
- Declaration of Morin, recently delivered from the Bastille, on the revocation of these thoughts, given to the public by the bad breaths, poisonings & enchantments that the Demons had given him to deceive men, under the pretext of Religion. Paris, Claude Morlot, 1649. 6 pp.
- Declaration of Morin, his wife and Miss Mal'herbe, concerning what they are accused of wanting to make a new sect, and how they have always been and remain subject to the Church. No place, 1649. 6 pp.
- Arrest of the Court of Parliament. Rendered against Simon Morin, a native of Richemont near Aumale, condemning him to make amends and to be burned alive for having risen to the status of Son of Man, understood as Son of God; together with the condemnation of his accomplices. Paris, Louis Barbote, 1663. 8 pp. (the last one, blank, not numbered).
- Le Procès-verbal d'exécution de mort de Simon Morin, brûlé vif en Place de Grève le 14 Mars 1663, contenant l'abjuration de son Hérésie & mauvaise doctrine. Without place or date. 6 pp.
Remarkable copy, which can be traced back over two centuries.
Bound for Paul Girardot de Préfond (bookplate, 1757, no. 176-177, misdescribed and reported as blue morocco), it was in the libraries of Mac-Carthy Reagh (1815, No. 1042), La Bédoyère (1837, No. 59), William Beckford (1882, No. 2645), La Germonière (bookplate, 1966, No. 256), Mac Laughlin (bookplate, 1987, No. 1874) and finally Pierre Berès (VI, 2007, No. 93).
In addition, it was listed in the bulletin of the Morgand bookshop (n° 8519) and is cited by Brunet.
The volumes, ruled in pink, are preserved in two elegant 18th century red morocco bindings, perfectly preserved.
Browning and small marginal restoration to the last leaf of the Pensées.
(Blavier, pp. 62-63 - Brunet, Fous littéraires, pp. 149-151: "The stake on which Morin perished is the last one that was lit in France for religious opinions" - Caillet, n° 7791 - Frère, t. II, p. 327 - Guaïta, n° 1637).
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