(1786). [GORSAS (Antoine Joseph)]. L'ANE PROMENEUR, OU CRITES PROMENE PAR SON ANE. A masterpiece to serve as an Apology to the Taste, Morals, Spirit and Discoveries of the Century. Pamplona, (Paris), Démocrite, au grelot de la folie, 1786. In-8 of [2]-302-[2] (catalogue) pages, fawn half-calf with corners, spine ribbed, red tr. (slightly later binding). Gorsas, initially destined for the priesthood, founded a house of education in Versailles. In 1788, he was imprisoned in Bicêtre, accused of corrupting the morals of his pupils. When he was released and the King was forced to leave Versailles, he founded a revolutionary newspaper, Le Courrier de Versailles. Appointed a member of the Convention, he gradually switched from the Montagne to the Gironde; he was arrested and guillotined on 7 October 1793. "L'Ane Promeneur" is a pretext in which the author takes to the stage with his donkey and, through spicy chronicles, mocks all the literary news of the time. Page 278, entitled le meilleur du livre, is blank and the engraving, numbered 277, suggests that the donkey is the reader... A fine copy (Barbier I, 177) (Quérard III, 411).