Portuguese Letters

Portuguese Letters ALCAFORADO (Marianna) Paris, D. JOUAUST, collection Des petits chefs-d'œuvre, 1875. Duodecimo (12mo) of VIII ff + 93 pp Half-morocco binding, spine with 5 raised bands, author and title gilt. Light traces of wear on the boards (rubbing), very slightly bumped corners. Good overall condition, fresh interior. Dedication at the end of the book in red ink dated May 18, 1926. Edition printed in 60 copies (30 on China paper; 30 on Whatman paper). Letters published on the first edition with a preliminary notice by Alexandre Piedagnel This is an epistolary novel attributed to Gabriel de Guilleragues. Before being considered a work of fiction attributed to Guilleragues, the letters were often attributed, until the 20th century, to a 17th-century Franciscan nun from the convent of Beja in Portugal, named Mariana Alcoforado (1640-1723), supposedly writing to her French lover, the Marquis de Chamilly, who came to Portugal to fight on the side of the Portuguese in their struggle for independence against Spain, from 1663 to 1668. Gabriel Joseph de Lavergne, Count of Guilleragues, (1628-1685) was a French journalist, diplomat, and writer.