Une découverte à la Bibliothèque d’État de Russie : un recueil du xvie siècle d’éditions de Rabelais

Résumé 0

A collection of editions of Rabelais which brought together three Lyons editions, the Chroniques du geant Gargantua, published in 1533, the Pantagruel of François Juste published in the same year, and the Pantagrueline Prognostication, attributed to the same publishing house and also dated 1533, the only known example, was thought to have been destroyed during World War II. It has been rediscovered in the Russian State Library. In the 16th century the collection belonged to one Antoine Aubin. It then found its way to the library of Count Hoym and subsequently to that of Count Brühl. It can be found in the Royal Library in Dresden by 1830 at the latest. By then it had lost the black velvet binding which it had in the library of Count Hoym, and acquired one of green morocco with gold tooled decoration from the late 18th or early 19th century. This discovery gives us access to the text of the Pantagrueline Prognostication [Lyons, François Juste, 1533?], and allows us to take up again a consideration of the dating of the various editions of Pantagruel. The Pantagruel of Dresden and Moscow had hitherto been known only by reproductions made before World War II. These can be shown to be unsatisfactory because of the modernisation of the spelling and the addition of accents. The reappearance of the original makes possible a scholarly study both of the works themselves, and also of the way in which they were read, through the availability of a series of texts which lie sensibly together. A better knowledge of the richness of Russian libraries allows one to hope for valuable collaboration between Russian and French researchers.