1690 – Auteurs Deguisez: A Lexicon of Pseudonymous, Cryptic, and Disguised Authors

$350.00

A rare and fascinating bibliographical curiosity: a French compendium of writers who concealed their identities under assumed, foreign, feigned, or ciphered names. Published in Paris in 1690 by Antoine Dezallier, Auteurs Deguisez is a pioneering attempt to map the labyrinth of pseudonymous and disguised authorship in the early modern world.

The title page proclaims its scope: authors “under foreign names; borrowed, supposed, feigned at pleasure; ciphered, reversed, turned around, or changed from one language into another.” In an age of censorship, satire, heresy, and esoteric writing, anonymity was both protection and provocation. For scholars and collectors, such guides were indispensable tools for piercing the masks of literary masquerade.

While serving as a practical bibliographical reference, the work also reveals the cultural fascination with hidden authorship, secret identities, and the codes of intellectual play. Of particular relevance to collectors of esoteric and heterodox literature, where pseudonyms abounded: one thinks of alchemical adepts such as “Basil Valentine” or “Eirenæus Philalethes,” or the disguised authors of libertine tracts. In this sense, Auteurs Deguisez is not merely a bibliographical aid, but also a cultural document of secrecy and disguise.

Auteurs Deguisez. Sous des noms étrangers; empruntez, supposez, feints à plaisir, chiffrez, renversez, retournez, ou changez d’une langue en une autre. Paris: Antoine Dezallier, rue St. Jacques, à la Couronne d’or. 12mo/8vo (format to be confirmed). Printer’s woodcut ornament on title. [1] 615 [1], alphabetically arranged. Contemporary mottled calf, boards rubbed, corners and edges worn, spine with raised bands, leather chipped at head and foot, but structurally sound. Title page with some toning and minor edge wear, but text block overall crisp and legible.

A rare and fascinating bibliographical curiosity: a French compendium of writers who concealed their identities under assumed, foreign, feigned, or ciphered names. Published in Paris in 1690 by Antoine Dezallier, Auteurs Deguisez is a pioneering attempt to map the labyrinth of pseudonymous and disguised authorship in the early modern world.

The title page proclaims its scope: authors “under foreign names; borrowed, supposed, feigned at pleasure; ciphered, reversed, turned around, or changed from one language into another.” In an age of censorship, satire, heresy, and esoteric writing, anonymity was both protection and provocation. For scholars and collectors, such guides were indispensable tools for piercing the masks of literary masquerade.

While serving as a practical bibliographical reference, the work also reveals the cultural fascination with hidden authorship, secret identities, and the codes of intellectual play. Of particular relevance to collectors of esoteric and heterodox literature, where pseudonyms abounded: one thinks of alchemical adepts such as “Basil Valentine” or “Eirenæus Philalethes,” or the disguised authors of libertine tracts. In this sense, Auteurs Deguisez is not merely a bibliographical aid, but also a cultural document of secrecy and disguise.

Auteurs Deguisez. Sous des noms étrangers; empruntez, supposez, feints à plaisir, chiffrez, renversez, retournez, ou changez d’une langue en une autre. Paris: Antoine Dezallier, rue St. Jacques, à la Couronne d’or. 12mo/8vo (format to be confirmed). Printer’s woodcut ornament on title. [1] 615 [1], alphabetically arranged. Contemporary mottled calf, boards rubbed, corners and edges worn, spine with raised bands, leather chipped at head and foot, but structurally sound. Title page with some toning and minor edge wear, but text block overall crisp and legible.