[CIRIER (Nicolas)]. The Apprentice Administrator, a picturesque (!), literary-typographical-bureaucratic pamphlet (nam tua res agitur paries cùm proximus ardet) of interest to anyone who is employed, employable or exempt. By someone in the latter category. Paris, Chez l'auteur, 1840. In-8 (227 x 144 mm) of [1] f. for the Mémoire à l'appui d'une pétition, IV pp. for the Dédiquasse, 72 pp, (2) ff. for I [between pages 18 and 19], (1) f., 17 pp. and 1 folded lithographed portrait for III [between pages 24 and 25], 1 large folded lithographed table. Paperback in printed green paper cover with remnants of red wax stamp and handwritten note pasted to first board, several small pieces of blank paper pasted to second board to hide engraved drawings in corners. First edition of 100 copies (of which less than ten have survived) of this incredible publication by Nicolas Cirier (1792-1869), proofreader and protector at the Imprimerie Royale from 1826 to 1836, when he resigned following a refusal of promotion. "This pamphlet, "bariolé d'observations" (Cirier dixit), that is to say, lithographic vignettes pasted on, woodcuts and copper engravings, a jumble of recriminations and considerations about the author's profession, is of interest to us above all for the typographic delirium employed, for what Cirier called his horror vacui [...] The most extravagant of Cirier's productions is also the rarest: as soon as it was published, its author announced that he was going to destroy all but "five or six" copies. Little more is known of it. (Antoine Coron). According to Raymond Queneau (who worked to bring Cirier out of oblivion): "No literary madman has ever made such profound use of the resources of printing, nor so conscious in expressing his delirium." (in Bâtons, chiffres et lettres). Copy enriched with 19 additional lithographs cut and pasted (not counting the fold-out portrait and table) and 13 printed texts pasted, a loose leaf printed on pink paper before p. 5 (with the continuation of the text of the page also printed on pink paper pasted at the bottom of page 5). Cover very worn, missing at lower corner of first cover, tears with small missing pieces at upper corner of first cover (with small piece of paper pasted on verso, for reinforcement?), major missing piece on second cover. Some foxing. (Des livres rares depuis l'invention de l'imprimerie, BnF, 1998, n° 241 : notice d'Antoine Coron ; Blavier, Les Fous littéraires, 2000, pp. 595-604).