GRATTELARD (Desiderio Descombes, known as Baron de). Les Rencontres, fantaisies et coq à lasnes pacecieux [sic] du Baron de Grattelard. Holding his ordinary class at the end of the Pont-neuf. Ses gaillardises admirables, ses conceptions inouïes, et ses farces jovialles. Paris, Jullien Trostolle, s.d. [1624]. Small in-12, purple morocco, double cold fillet, smooth spine titled throughout, interior lace, gilt edges (Binding of the late eighteenth century). Extremely rare edition of this curious facetious booklet published by a rival of Tabarin. Mongrédien describes Antoine de Sommaville's 1623 edition as "the first edition of the works of Grattelard, pseudonym of Desiderio Descombes, another charlatan who had set up his theatre at the end of the Pont-Neuf". According to him, Julien Trostolle's edition was the second, as there are copies bearing the date 1624. The libretto contains fourteen questions, mostly taken from Tabarin's first Recueil général of 1623, and the Farce des bossus with seven characters. The introductory epistle is addressed to Descombes. This extremely rare edition is missing from the BnF. The Catalogue collectif de France lists only one copy, kept at Versailles in the Lebaudy collection. Prestigious copy bound in the style of Derome, from the libraries of Soleinne (1843, I, n°974), Baudelocque (1850, n°1319), Lignerolles (1894, II, n°1974) and Pierre Louÿs (1930, n°310). Repair to upper corner of title and margin of pp. 13-16; small hole in margin of pp. 29-30; light foxing. Mongrédien, Bibliographie tabarinique, n°27.