Les nouveaux oracles divertissans. [With:] Curieux traité de la phisionomie. [And:] Traité des songes et des visions nocturnes

Paris: Quinet, 1696. Engraved frontispiece. Contemporary mottled calf, spine and label gilt, edges sprinkled red. A very good copy in genuine, original condition. A curious and whimsical occult divining guide for women. The text is comprised of three parts with separate title pages, but the author intended for them to be published as one volume; he mentions all three in his Avis, which is addressed to all ladies. The first part is a fortune-telling parlor game, wherein players select from a list of 71 questions and, without looking, point at a number on the Wheel of Fortune on the frontispiece. Using the numbers selected, the text guides players to an (truncated) answer. The second part is a location-based treatise on physiognomy; the author extrapolates character traits based on the country or region where someone is born as well as his/her facial features. The final section of the book is a guide to dream interpretation, which includes a handy alphabetic table of motifs and their meanings.

This book was originally published under the title Palais des curieux in 1646, and it was reprinted with some variation into the eighteenth century. This is the first appearance of the text under the new title. OCLC locates 3 copies of this edition in America (Cornell, Newberry, Indiana), and no copies of any earlier editions.

Barbier, Anon III: 725, 762. (Inventory #: 19698)