Histoire de Jean de Paris, Roi de France.
Publisher: chez Jean-A. Garnier, Imp. rue du Temple
Published: 1738
Place of publication: A Troyes
Language: fre
Number of pages: 46
Work titles: Jean de Paris.
Notes: On two final unnumbered pages: 'Extrait de la Permission', 'Donné à Versailles, le 19. jour de May, l'an de grace 1738', and Registration dated: 'A Paris, le 24. Septembre 1738' ; date of printing conjectured from these.

'This last medieval romance centres patriotically on the king of France's amorous rivalry with the king of England for the hand of the Infanta of Castille. Jehan's splendid progress to Spain disguised as a rich merchant, his chivlaric triumph, is set against a caricature of the luckless English monarch' [NOCLF] Nisard states that Jean de Paris has nothing in common with the only King of France to bear that name, and whose adventures are too well known to be confused with his.

Nisard gives the first, undated, edition of this work as of Paris and Lyon, in 4o; it was reprinted many times at Troyes, Rouen, Liége and Paris in the 'Bibliothèque bleue' series. He describes it as 'le plus ancien peut-être de nos romans comiques et facétieux, et ce n'est pas, il s'en faut, un des moins agréables ... Il a des traits déjà nombreux de ce genre d'esprit qu'on a depuis appelé par excellence l'esprit français; il en a particulièrement le ton persifleur; il en a quelquefois toute la délicatesse'.

Large woodcut on title-page, depicting Jean de Paris on horseback; a winged cherub holds a laurel wreath above his head.

Nisard 2, 435 [Épinal and Montbéliard editions]; Brunet 3, 525 [Troyes, Oudot, 1617, 8vo edition].