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| Another Mr. Hammer book. |
A prolific writer, author of Mémoires de D’Artagnan (1700), which
inspired Alexandre Dumas for his novel The Three Musketeers, Gaetien de Courtilz, Sieur de Sandras, was also smuggling forbidden books...
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Amongst the Courtilz’ titles of the auction sale of Poitiers were some quite
hard to find ones like Mémoires de
Jean-Baptiste de la Fontaine, a pirate edition of Mémoires de Madame la Marquise de Fresne (printed cette
année présente, the present year – a pirate edition of a forbidden book,
what a galimatia!), Mémoires de Mr.L.C.D.R and Mémoires de Mr D’Artagnan (partly
original). The appraisals were low, from 50 to 60 euros, no title went under
180 euros (the D’Artagnan went above 300). It was still a good deal as
professional booksellers tend to ask 300 euros for a nice copy. On eBay.fr, only three Courtilz
are currently available: Nouveaux
Intérêts des Princes de l’Europe (chez Pierre Marteau, 1688) at 385 euros, Mémoires de la Marquise de Fresne
(Amsterdam, 1714) at 300 euros and Annales
de la Cour de Paris (chez Pierre Marteau, 1739) at 1,000 euros - the latter
bearing the coat of arms of the Colbert family. Not
every book lover is looking for Courtilz’ works - but those who do, rate them.
For their lively contents but also for the mythology surrounding the books and
their author. Courtilz was walking on a tight rope, going to and fro his
property of Montargis in France and Holland, smuggling banned books for a
living. Under the pseudonym of Louis de Monfort, he became an active figure of
the frobidden literature of the time. “He frequently intervened in favour of some colleagues harassed by the
police of books, writes Jean Lombard in
L’Aventure dans le roman à la fin du Grand Siècle (Congress of Amiens, 1987). (...) [In the early 1690’s], Courtilz had three different addresses in Paris, plus a PO
box and a post house. He received lettres, sometimes under his own name,
sometimes under the name of Monfort. But police were at work.” According to
this author, Courtilz was sent to prison a first time, and released soon after.
He came back to Paris despite being banned by the authorities, arguing of
medical obligations. “Police established
more and more precise reports about him, but he was protected by a Commissioneer
of police – we do not dare to risk any hypothesis regarding this protection.”
The market for banned books was huge,
and Holland had become a centre of
counterfeit and forbidden books. A lot of booksellers would also legally print
their books there, it was cheaper – but the readers did not trust those copies,
often ill printed and full of mistakes, hence the often met mention “ D’après
la copie de Paris” (According to the copy
of Paris). Booksellers who did not want their business affiliation to some
Protestants to be acknowledged, mentioned a fictive address or a fictive
printer on the title page.
What fascinates with Courtilz is the bad habit, or the genious, he had
of mixing truth and fiction. Worst, he was pretty good at it. He wrote a lot of
memoirs in the I-form, playing on the different levels of narration. The
biography of Mr D’Artagnan, for instance, was written 27 years after the Musketeer’s
death : “I put these memoirs together,
wrote the author in the preface, from
several pieces found in the documents [d’Artagnan] left after his death.” They are packed with accounts of historical
battles and, more interesting, with quite convincing portraits of historical
characters such as Cardinal Richelieu, Cardinal Mazarin and even Louis XIV. Far
from the official chronicles, Courtilz describes Cardinal Mazarin, for
instance, in a very straightforward and intimate way : “He was a wicked master (....) as
he had proved himelf to be covetious and deceitful (...), people of quality would not seek his
company so that we can say he was surrounded by more riffraff than honest
people (...). Who offered the most
was the most welcome.” Talking about the Cardinal’s creatures, he specifies: “They used to get fat off the people’s
blood.” Was Courtilz that far from reality ? When he died, Mazarin was
alledgedly richer than... the state of France. We believe quite willingly too,
in the corrupt society Courtilz depicts: a hierarchy based upon birth rather
than merit and some valuable people like Colonel Fabert neglected because Louis
XIV deeply disliked his look.
In the first pages of the biography of the once most powerful Ministre of Louis
XIV, Jean-Baptiste Colbert (La Vie de
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, À Cologne, ***, 1695), he enumerates the qualities of
the politician before stating: “He
was ready to sacrifice everything to his glory, including integrity, honour and
gratitude. He was tough to the extreme and did not care to ruin a multitude of
families as long as he could collect some money for the State. He never did any
good to anyone but, at least, he never shed the blood of his enemies.”
Such a tone was probably not appreciated in Versailles – at least openly, as we
often come across some copies of Courtilz’ works featuring dignified coats of
arms. Truth can be felt in Courtilz’ portraits, he knew what he was talking
about. A former Musketeer himself, he had fought different battles and met a lot of people of
quality from the French Court. He had served under the commandment of
D’Artagnan at one point, and spent some time in La Bastille when Besmeaux, a
former friend of the Musketeer, was the Governor of the prison. Did he gave him some details about D’Artagnan? If he did, he surely regreted it as Courtilz depicts Besmeaux as a man rich
in pride and poor in dignity, ready to
sacrifice his best friends for advancement sake. A lapidary style, some
private adventures worthy of the best novels and the feeling to be thrown right
into the middle of the greatest events of the Grand Siècle make Courtilz’ books
captivating. His personal way of interpreting history is what makes them
satirical – not to say seditious.
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SANDRAS DE COURTILZ
(1664 – 1712)
AND HIS LITTLE OFFICE OF LIES
Last june, an auction sale held by Pierre Ségeron in Poitiers, France,
featured an interesting selection of De Courtilz’ hard to find works. A
prolific writer, author of Mémoires de
D’Artagnan (1700) which inspired Alexandre Dumas for his novel The Three Musketeers, Gaetien de Courtilz,
Sieur de Sandras, is an underground legend of French literature, the unwilling
precursor of historical novels.
De Courtilz was, nevertheless, mostly despised
in his time – and even afterwards. “He
was born in Paris in 1664, reads the Chaudon & Delandine’s Dictionnaire historique (Lyon, 1804). Once a Captain in the Regiment of Champagne,
he went to Holland in 1683 to open a little office of lies (...) As prolific as trivial, he penned many a novels published as histories – thus even more dangerous as he hid his
lies behind a screen of truth. Back to France in 1702, he was emprisoned to La
Bastille where he remained under close watch for many years, and he did not come
out until 1711.” Louis XIV was very
serious about satires. In 1694, for example, a lampoon entitled Scarron apparu à Mme de Maintenon
(Scarron appeared to Mme de Maintenon) was anonymously published. It was a very
harsh attack against the King and his last wife, Mme de Maintenon, widow of the
free-thinker Scarron (author of Le Roman
comique, then considered a trivial book). In his Manuel du Libraire, Brunet wrote : “A companion and a binder, after being put to the question (torture,
author’s note), both ordinary and
extraordinary, where hung for having published, bound and sold this satire
against the King. Two other accused were sent to the galleys, a fifth one was put
to the question and almost sent to the gallows before a counter-order was sent,
probably obtained by Père Lachaise (the confessor of the King, author’s
note) whom the victim was a relative of.” A satirical writer, Courtilz surely felt
more secure in Holland where he published, in 1683, the brutal La Conduite de la France depuis la paix de
Nimègues (The Behaviour of France, since the Peace of Nimègues), in which he vomits impostures about his own
country, reads De Feller’s
Dictionnaire Historique (Liège, 1791).
The reason he was hated so much is because he was an enemy of the Crown
and an alledged Protestant – though he apparently professed Catholicism. “When Louis XIV (...), motivated by his frenetic bigotry, went too far with the Protestants,
Holland welcomed them warmly, wrote Léonce Jeanmart de Brouillant in his Histoire de Pierre Marteau (Quantin,
1888). Despite spying measures and death
threats, the most intelligent and active part of the population migrated.
Amsterdam granted these expatriates free exercice of their occupation and lent them
considerable sums of money. (…) Holland,
according to Bayle, had become the great ark of the fugitives.” As a reformed country,
Holland nurtured satires against the powerful Catholic congregation of the Jesuites
that had gained considerable power in France, and against the most hated King
of Europe – or the most feared, as you like it -, Louis the Great. Holland and
France went to war several times over this period. Satires were considered as
weapons, their authors as spies and traitors.
LOUIS DE MONTFORT
CHEZ
PIERRE MARTEAU
Amongst the Courtilz’ titles of the auction sale of Poitiers were some quite
hard to find ones like Mémoires de
Jean-Baptiste de la Fontaine, a pirate edition of Mémoires de Madame la Marquise de Fresne (printed cette
année présente, the present year – a pirate edition of a forbidden book,
what a galimatia!), Mémoires de Mr.L.C.D.R and Mémoires de Mr D’Artagnan (partly
original). The appraisals were low, from 50 to 60 euros, no title went under
180 euros (the D’Artagnan went above 300). It was still a good deal as
professional booksellers tend to ask 300 euros for a nice copy. On eBay.fr, only three Courtilz
are currently available: Nouveaux
Intérêts des Princes de l’Europe (chez Pierre Marteau, 1688) at 385 euros, Mémoires de la Marquise de Fresne
(Amsterdam, 1714) at 300 euros and Annales
de la Cour de Paris (chez Pierre Marteau, 1739) at 1,000 euros - the latter
bearing the coat of arms of the Colbert family. Not
every book lover is looking for Courtilz’ works - but those who do, rate them.
For their lively contents but also for the mythology surrounding the books and
their author. Courtilz was walking on a tight rope, going to and fro his
property of Montargis in France and Holland, smuggling banned books for a
living. Under the pseudonym of Louis de Monfort, he became an active figure of
the frobidden literature of the time. “He frequently intervened in favour of some colleagues harassed by the
police of books, writes Jean Lombard in
L’Aventure dans le roman à la fin du Grand Siècle (Congress of Amiens, 1987). (...) [In the early 1690’s], Courtilz had three different addresses in Paris, plus a PO
box and a post house. He received lettres, sometimes under his own name,
sometimes under the name of Monfort. But police were at work.” According to
this author, Courtilz was sent to prison a first time, and released soon after.
He came back to Paris despite being banned by the authorities, arguing of
medical obligations. “Police established
more and more precise reports about him, but he was protected by a Commissioneer
of police – we do not dare to risk any hypothesis regarding this protection.”
The market for banned books was huge,
and Holland had become a centre of
counterfeit and forbidden books. A lot of booksellers would also legally print
their books there, it was cheaper – but the readers did not trust those copies,
often ill printed and full of mistakes, hence the often met mention “ D’après
la copie de Paris” (According to the copy
of Paris). Booksellers who did not want their business affiliation to some
Protestants to be acknowledged, mentioned a fictive address or a fictive
printer on the title page.
Courtilz sure did not want anyone to know what he was printing – nor
where. So he published his book anonymously and most of the time chez Pierre
Marteau, the famous fictive dutch printer. Pierre Marteau, alias Pierre du
Marteau, alias Willhelm Marteau or Peter Hammer in Germany, or Pierre
l’Enclume, has never existed. He was invented in 1660 by the powerful Elzevier
dynasty of dutch printers to safely put out a scandalous book in French. Marteau
soon became very fashionable amongst printers – he made friends with “ people ” like Pierre Van Dyck (who put out Mr de la Rochefoucauld’s memoirs), Pierre
Mortier, Simon l’Africain, Jacques le Curieux or Robert le Turcq – when he
passed away, his heirs and his widow took over! His most famous publication
is Les Lettres Persanes by
Montesquieu (1721). Courtilz knew Pierre Marteau very
well, he gave him several works to put out like Mémoires de Mr D’Artagnan (1700), Annales de la Cour et de Paris pour les
années 1697 et 1698 (1701), Mémoires
de messire Jean-Baptiste de la Fontaine (1699) or La vie de Gaspard de Coligny (no date) – all of these were to be
found at the auction sale of Poitiers. Let us specify here that not all the
Marteau printings come from the Elzevier’s press, far from that. The name was
picked up by any printer, and thus made even more efficient in blurring the
truth.
USED TO CALOMNY
 |
| Another De Courtilz' production |
As a wise man, Courtilz never signed his
books. And he had them printed at Pierre Marteau’s. But neither the protection
of a Commissioneer of police nor the mysteries around his wanderings could shelter
him from the wrath of the Sun King. In 1702, he was arrested and embastillé (put to prison at La Bastille) for eleven years! He remained active behind
bars. “Accustomed to calomny, reads
Chaudon’s Dictionnaire, and writing – unfortunately - with ease,
Sandras published book after book without running out of fancy stories.” The
irrelevant facts noted by his detractors are rarely detailed – a duel between
the Palatin and Turenne, incorrect chronology at times... but mostly made-up
romances and adventures involving real personalities - calomny. In Le Siècle de Louis XIV, Voltaire wrote a
short paragraph about Sandras de Courtilz: “We do place here his name only to inform foreigners about his false Memoirs printed in Holland. Courtilz was one of the most wicked writers of his kind:
he drowned Europe under a flood of novels he called histories.” Such a mixture of truth and fiction could
not be forgiven in those times, not even by Voltaire. In La Bastille, Courtilz
wrote restlessly, including the biography of one of his inmates, M. de
Tyrconnel. He left 40 manuscripts behind him when he died, one year after his
release, in 1712, aged 68. “These are a
series of historical novels that should have been buried with their author,
wrote Chaudon. It might have been wise to
add his printed books to the casket as well.” No mercy for the villains in
historical dictionnaries.
Courtilz works have amused and
abused the ignorant readers, according to Voltaire, but literature was
undergoing a tremendous change at the time. Courtilz played his part in the
revolution of modernity, willingly or not – that’s another mystey linked to his
name, just like his marrying the widow of a bookseller, at the end of his life,
who had tracked him down for years. Time has eventually rehabilitated Courtilz
de Sandras to a certain extent – not a very popular writer, he remains
cherished by some learnt, abused and
amused readers. In this respect, he probably owes a lot to Alexandre Dumas.
Nevertheless, there is one master piece missing from his catalogue, the Memoirs of Sandras de Courtilz (chez
Pierre Marteau, of course). Guess he
would not mind someone to write them right now, building them from truths and
lies.
© Thibault Ehrengardt
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