[Manuscript], [Spine title:] Oeuvres Diverses de J.B Lavielle Neveu.

Bookseller Notes

A fascinating and diverse collection of texts, representing many decades of output, by Franco-Martinican teacher and man of letters, Jean-Baptiste Lavielle. Bound thematically rather than chronologically, the first half of the collection includes Lavielle's own writings (some with amendments in his hand): poems, erotica, riddle songs, allegories (mediocrity and other topics), compliments, epithalemia, after dinner speeches (a dedication meal of the Cercle de Sorze 'in my capacity as president [...]', 1820) and other festivities, some pieces of correspondence (including, on loose leaves, an exchange with a former student). Some pieces have a barely veiled political character, mourning - for example - the 'assassination' of Louis XVI, the misfortunes of war, etc. A few later notes, in the author's hand, give information on the circumstances of the composition of various texts, and where they have been published locally (in the Chronique de la Gironde, for example). The second part mainly contains texts or course notes: definitions of different literary genres, extracts from philosophers, and theories of mathematics and geometry. This final part has finely executed mathematical diagrams. A noble house originating in Brittany, the Lavielle (or Lavelle) family had branches in Quebec, as well as in Martinique, where Jean-Baptiste was born. He was a student and later a professor of French and Latin literature (1811-23) at the prestigious Benedictine school in Sorze, at the foot of the Montagne Noire (Massif Central). The academy was made a Royal Military School under Louis XVI and began to welcome students from across the French colonial world. He lived in Bordeaux for a time, and was the author of various textbooks on grammar and literature. This fascinating volume straddles Lavielle's life as both student and teacher. See: Qurard, France litt., IV:639; Marie-Odile Munier, Catalogue of the archives of the abbey-school of Sorze (2009), pp. 82, 310.