BARBEY D'AUREVILLY (Jules). A married priest. [Paris], Impr. Schiller, s.d. [1864]. In-4, 85 pp, violet morocco, four straight and dotted gilt fillets with large fleurons at the corners, ornate spine, inner lace, crimson silk lining and endpapers, gilt edges, chemise and slipcase sheathed in the same morocco (J. Faki). A true first edition, absolutely rare as only two or three copies were ever printed. It is sometimes presented as the pre-original edition of the novel, on the pretext that it is an offprint from the newspaper Le Pays, in which the novel appeared in serial form from 6 July to 5 October 1864. The text was printed in three columns, but with continuous pagination, in a single volume with a special cover (not included here). It was accompanied by a notice and footnotes by Alcide Grandguillot, the editor of the newspaper Le Pays. These explanatory and critical notes, which the author considered inappropriate, appear nowhere else but in this edition. Vicaire describes this edition as an "exceptional edition made for a close friend of Barbey d'Aurevilly", published in a single copy, which passed in the Kaulek sale (1893, no. 85). Jean de Beaulieu also only knew of this one copy, "the Barbey copy belonging to M. Henri Jouvin. Vicaire claims that it is the only one, but he passed on another at the Léon Schuck sale on 8 June 1931" (Les Cahiers aurevilliens). According to Clouzot, it was "apparently printed in two copies", a more than confidential edition which explains why the Achille Faure edition published in bookshops in 1865 is generally presented as the original of the novel. A very fine copy, washed, glued and luxuriously bound by Joachim Faki. Endpapers browned. Attached are 8 pp. of handwritten notes entitled Notes bibliographiques sur Barbey, by Henri Jouvin, who devotes 2 pp. to the present edition, the "true first edition of Un prêtre marié." Vicaire, I, 303 - Clouzot, 39 - Les Cahiers aurevilliens, n°1, May 1935: "Bibliographie aurevillienne", p. 93, n°7.