Imbert Guillaume - Lot 19

Imbert Guillaume La chronique scandaleuse ou mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la génération présente, contenant les anecdotes secrètes & les pièces fugitives les plus piquantes qui ont occupé les sociétés pendant les derniers temps. Paris, dans un coin d'où l'on voit tout, 1788. Third revised & corrected edition. 5 volumes in-12, bound in 19th-century Bradel-style white half-vellum, smooth spine with red morocco title-piece. Good condition, tiny flaws at the edges of some title-pieces. A clean copy, with some wetness in the margin of volume IV. This chronicle originally appeared in 1 volume (1783), then increased to 2 volumes (1784), 4 in 1785 and finally 5 in 1788-1791. The "scandalous" author (1744-1803) was originally a Benedictine monk. He left the order following a trial, and became a polemicist dangerous enough to be locked up three times in the Bastille. He went into exile in Germany, and did not return to France until 1790. Label of Bernard Clavreuil, bookplate of Ludovic Halévy