Les visions de Dom Francisco De Quevedo Villegas, Cheualier de l'Ordre S. Iacques. Augmentées de l'Enfer reformé, ou Sedition infernale. Traduites d'Espagnol. Par le Sieur De la Geneste.

8vo (161x100 mm). [16], 381, [3] blank pp. Collation: a⁸ A-Z8 Aa8. Leaf Aa8 blank. With the printer's woodcut device on the title page. 19th-century full morocco binding by the great French bookbinder Hippolyte Duru, lettering piece on the spine, gilt inside dentelles, marbled endpapers, gilt edges with underlying marbling (worn and rubbed, hinges weakend). On the front flyleaf bookplate of A. Renaud. Slightly uniformly browned, but overall a good copy.
Second French edition of this famous esoteric treatise by the great Madrid poet and writer Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas. Quevedo is perhaps the most vigorous, restless and complex intellect in Spanish literature. He is also considered one of the most significant figures of the European Baroque. This is an expanded edition of the famous Sueños. The work was a great success but also had a troubled life. The author sought approval to print it for the first time in 1610, but the censor judged the book pernicious due to its satirical and grotesque topics. Two years later, a second censor gave a favourable opinion, but despite this, the work was published only in 1627 and outside the kingdom of Castile under the title “Sueños y discursis de verdades descubridoras de abusos”. The book immediately had a great resonance, but warned by the Holy Office the author decided to make a purged edition according to the wishes of the ecclesiastical authorities, that appeared in Madrid in 1631 with a different title. The original work was presented in five dialogues while this edition additionally presents the sixth vision of hell, the famous “Sédition Infernale” dialogue.