Jean Bouloumie — Les Goinfres Celebres: Vitellius

Saint-Dizier, Typographie et Lithographie O. Godard, 1900 . First edition. Cloth. The scarce first edition of Jean Bouloumies lavishly illustrated mock-Roman history, framing the gluttonous emperor Vitellius as a champion of Vittel mineral water. Rebound in later full orange cloth, with the publisher's original wraps bound in. The scarce first edition. Illustrated throughout by Lucien Tardieu, with numerous monochrome illustrations, photographic compositions and decorative vignettes, together with a full-page railway map showing routes to Vittel.  A lavishly illustrated French mock-historical work combining Roman biography and humour, advertising for Vittel mineral water.  Jean Bouloumie (1878-1952) was a French physician, industrialist and politician, and the grandson of Louis Bouloumié, founder of the Vittel spa. Bouloumie presents a fanciful reconstruction of the life of the notoriously gluttonous Roman emperor Vitellius, imagining him as the ancient founder of Vittel and incorporating the resort"s mineral springs into his story. A notably scarce work, seldom encountered in commerce, and a wonderfully eccentric piece of French gastronomic and advertising history. Rebound in later full cloth, with the publisher's original wraps bound in. The odd very faint handling mark to boards. Light soiling and creasing to extremities of original wraps. Very slight shelf wear to extremities. Internally, firmly bound. Pages bright and clean with the odd faint handling mark to fore edge of first and final few leaves. Near Fine . Ill.: Lucien Tardieu. Near Fine .