[WINE QUARREL]. SALINS (Jean-Baptiste de), known as Salins the elder. A medico-bachic trial. Dispute over the pre-eminence of Burgundy and Champagne wines (1701-1706). A collection of manuscript and printed texts and documents, most of them written by or addressed to Jean-Baptiste de Salins, Royal Councillor and Doctor of Medicine in Beaune, and thirty letters addressed to him between 1701 and 1706, mainly concerning the publication of his text on the Defence of Burgundy Wine against Champagne Wine, which caused such a stir. The set contains : 1). 32 handwritten documents, in-8 or in-4, including a correspondence of 30 autograph letters, written from 1701 to 1706 and addressed to Jean-Baptiste de Salins by various personalities. # There are 4 letters from his brother Hugues concerning the 1st edition and its Latin translation, 1 letter from his nephew Claude and various letters concerning either the "Défense du Vin de Bourgogne" or the quarrel between the de Salins brothers. Some letters are copies, in Jean-Baptiste's handwriting, of letters addressed by himself. 2). 3 autograph handwritten texts in-4 : a. "Monitum" [in French "avertissement"]: 5 pp. text appearing at the head of the third edition of the Latin version of the "Défense du Vin de Bourgogne", published in Beaune by François Simonnet in 1705 [Cf. the following text] - Vicaire 255-58. b. Defensio | Vini | Burgundiani | adversus | Vinum | Campanum || Parisiis, M.DCCV. (1705). Autograph text of 30 pp. Quérard, Fr. litt..., quoted by Vicaire (257). c. Letter written to a Magistrate of the first order as an Answer to a doctor from Reims, author of a defamatory Libel by two Letters he wrote against the honour and Reputation of the wines of Beaune, and particularly against the author of their deffense, taken from his memoirs by a Scavant of quality of his friends, by Which it is proved that the wine of Beaune is more pleasant and healthier than the wine of Reims. [epigraph] Responde stulto iuxta stultitiam suam, ne sibi sapiens esse videatur. Proverb. Salom. Cap. 26 v.5: Text of 43 pp. Enclosed, the printed text: # Lettre | écrite | à un | Magistrat | du premier ordre | pour réponse a un | Docteur Remois Auteur d'un Libelle diffa- | matoire, par deux lettres qu'il à écrit [sic] con- | tre l'honneur & la réputation des Vins de | Beaune, & particulièrement contre l'Au- | teur de leur Deffense tirée de ses mémoires | par un Scavant de qualité de ses amis, par | lesquels il est prouvé que le Vin de Beaune | est plus agreable, & plus sain, que le Vin | de Reims. A Paris, M.DCC.VI (1706) - 18 pp. Precious document with six early autograph corrections in pen, probably in the author's hand on pages 7, 9 and 14. The title differs slightly from that cited by Milsand I. 169. # 3). A bundle of various scholarly notes and articles dating from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Jean-Baptiste de Salins (1630-1710), son of Hugues, was a doctor in Beaune and a king's advisor. He had a brother, also named Hugues (1632-1710), who practised medicine in Dijon. Both were closely involved in the famous dispute between Burgundy and Champagne wines at the beginning of the 18th century. The dispute between the two men was made all the more difficult by the fact that biographers and historians have often confused them because of the similarities in their names and professions. Despite this imbroglio, here is a rough chronology of events: On 5 May 1700, a man by the name of Le Pescheur presented a thesis to the Reims Medical School in which he advocated the superiority of Champagne wine over Burgundy wine. Stung to the core, Jean-Baptiste responded by composing a handwritten text entitled "Défense du Vin de Bourgogne contre le Vin de Champagne", which he sent to his brother Hugues to have printed in Dijon by Ressayre. In June 1701, a single copy, neatly covered in marbled paper, was sent to M. Fagon, Louis XIV's first physician and honorary member of the Académie des Sciences, himself a native of Nuits-St-Georges. The author hoped for a glowing reply, with the intention of inserting it at the head of copies awaiting distribution. The response was not forthcoming, and the text was put into circulation in August, as attested by a letter from Hugues de Salins to his brother. At the beginning of 1702, Jean-Baptiste (and not his brother, as some claim) translated his text into Latin and sent it to his brother. On 22 February, the latter wrote to him, in a rather dry tone, that the Latin was rather lame and that he would correct it before publishing it. At the end of 1702 or beginning of 1703, the text finally came off the press. Hugues claimed authorship (see the letter of 5 October 1703 from Clopin to Jean-Baptiste and the letter of the following 10 October to Jean-Baptiste) and the two brothers fell out. In 1704, after making a few changes to the initial text and adding a 4-fold warning, Hugues published a second edition of the "Défense du Vin de Bourgogne contre le Vin de Champagne", under the false address of Luxembourg, André Chevalier [in reality Dijon, Ressayre]. A letter from Mr Parisot, Attorney General, to Jean-Baptiste dated 25 March 1704 mentions this plagiarism. In 1705, Jean-Baptiste had a new Latin edition published in Beaune by François Simonnot, marked "editia tertia". It contained a "Monitum" against his brother. A letter from M. Parisot dated 20 December 1705 tells us that the town of Beaune financed the printing. On 8 January 1706, Abbé Vacher, the parish priest of Cîteaux, congratulated Jean-Baptiste on his opuscule and criticised Hugues, the plagiarist. He then tried to reconcile the two brothers. On 25 March 1706, Claude, Hugues' son, wrote to his uncle to protest strongly against the "monitum" he had just read: "These gentlemen of the Parlement, to whom you have sent it, do not dare to let us see it, because nothing more outrageous can be said against my father". The tone is aggressive and ends with a break: "You must expect an answer from my father, which will make known what you are, and from me that neither I, nor my wife, nor my family will ever have any relationship with you". In the margin, Jean-Baptiste wrote: "Insolent letter from S. C. de Salins de Dijon to keep". In reality, Hugues made no reply and after the death of the two brothers in 1710, Claude relentlessly defended his father's authorship of the translation. Jean-Baptiste was not rehabilitated by bibliographers until the end of the 19th century. In 1706, Jean-Baptiste in turn had a new edition of the 'Defensio' printed, but without the 'monitum' [Dijon, Grangier]. He also had a new text published, entitled "Lettre écrite à un magistrat du premier ordre pour réponse à un docteur Rémois auteur d'un libelle diffamatoire, par deux lettres qu'il a écrit (sic) contre l'honneur et la réputation des Vins de Beaune, et particulièrement contre l'Auteur de leur deffense tirée de ses mémoires par un Sçavans de qualité de ses amis, par lesquels il est prouvé que le Vin de Beaune est plus agréable, et plus sain, que le Vin de Reims". (Paris. 1706). This letter was in turn a response to the reaction of the people of Champagne, which had taken the form of two letters of invective, published anonymously but apparently written by Dr [Le] Pescheur, author of the thesis that had sparked off the famous medical-bach debate. The entire file comes from the library of Louis-Bénigne Baudot (1765-1844), a Burgundian lawyer and antiquarian, whose name appears on the first inside back cover of the binding. It is he who gave the title that appears on the back of the binding and that we have taken at the head of this description. Enclosed: Lettres de M.... à M...., auteur de la thèse qui conclut que le vin de Reims est plus agréable et plus sain que celui de Bourgogne - Paris, 1706. In-4, 13 pp, paperback, copy protected in a blue half-maroquin folder, decorated paper case. Joint: Extract from the Journal des Scavans, 1706, pp. 125-128 on the Defensio Vini Burgundiani, adversus Vinum Campanum, Editio tertia. And an extract from the same volume of the Journal des Scavans, 1706, pp. 345 -351: Réponse du Dr Le Pescheur à la Lettre de Mr... A Mr.... Author of the These which concludes that the Wine of Rheims is more pleasant & healthier than the Wine of Burgundy. [See : Grenan (Bénigne) ["L'éloge du vin de Bourgogne"] and Coffin de Buzancy (Charles) ["La Champagne vengée"]. B.N. Printed catalogue, vol. 161, pp. 649-650 (attributes to Jean-Baptiste de Salins a Latin edition and two French editions of the "Défense..." but says nothing about the "Lettre écrite à un magistrat...") - Hoefer XLIV, pp. 185 - Clément Janin, Les Imprimeurs et les Libraires dans la Côte-d'Or, p. 165 - Journal des Savants, 1706 (study of the quarrel between the two brothers) - Michaud XXXVII, p. 503 - Papillon. Bibliothèque des Auteurs de Bourgogne ff. 232-33 - Quérard, France Littéraire, VIII, 404 - Vicaire 255-258 (specifies that the "doctor from Reims" is Charles Coffin, the author of "La Champagne vengée")].