La pauvreté contente
Paris, Chez Edme Couterot. 1689
(Daniello Bartoli)
In-12, 154x93mm. Endpapers, Frontispiece, [9] ff. 340 pp. Endpapers
Full brown marbled calf. Spine with five raised bands with gilt boxes and title label. Gilt border on the edges of the outer covers. White laid paper endpapers. Red edges (erased).
"Contented poverty is a morality as strange as that of the Egyptians whose hieroglyphic paintings make anyone laugh who only looks at the figures."
Danielo Bartoli
This book is the second French translation of the text La Poverta Contenta (1649) by Daniello Bartoli, a famous Italian Jesuit scholar.
It may have been inherited from the first part of his famous Dell'Huomo di lettere difeso, et emendato. 1645, entitled La Sapienza Felice anche nelle Miserie [Happy Wisdom, Even in Misery], which was a great success and was reprinted and translated into all European languages.
The book begins with a text dedicated to the Rich Who Are Never Content. The author directly attacks the rich to guard against any prejudices about the naivety of his thinking and their contempt for poverty.
"The name poverty may be as unpleasant to your ears as the presence of the poor is unbearable to your eyes."
Danielo Bartoli
The book is divided into 17 parts. The author addresses the subject of poverty from several perspectives: philosophical, theological, economic, material, and social. He seeks to demonstrate the benefits of voluntary poverty.
Timeless themes such as the accumulation of wealth, the obsession with money, hoarding, holding onto, and losing one's possessions... this insight into human behavior remains relevant today.
"The contented poor are free from the trouble of amassing, the care of preserving, and the pain of losing."
Danielo Bartoli
Some sample chapters:
Chapter VIII: That the rich's strength arouses more pity than envy
Chapter IX: That the hope of heaven's blessings makes the poor content in their poverty
Chapter X: On the vices that usually accompany wealth
Chapter XI: On the vain and immodest clothes of the rich and the simple clothing of the poor
It is interesting to compare the first French translation made by Father Brunet in 1664 with that of Couterot (our translation). These two translations have nothing in common, and the meaning of the text is completely different, especially since Brunet's version is difficult to understand; the text is disjointed and not very fluid.
While the one printed by Couterot is much better constructed and faithfully transcribes all the depth of Bartoli's spirit.
"A fascinating text, full of wit and mischief, which will reassure you about the state of your own finances."
Casaubon Library
Rare book. No digital version is available, and we have found no record of this edition being sold.
Not referenced in standard bibliographies. Even Gamba, though cited by Brunet and Graesse as being more comprehensive on Bartoli's texts in his Serie dei testi di lingua e di altre opere importanti nella italiana letteratura, does not cite La Poverta Contenta.
Six copies are listed in libraries: Archives nationales du Québec - BNF - Bibliotheque Sainte Geneviève - Friedsam Memorial Library - British Library, St. Pancras - Harvard Library.
To learn more :
First french translation of father Brunet : https://books.google.fr/books?id=I24SX4FwwyAC&pg=PP5&hl=fr&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
Original La Pauverta Contenta : http://www.bibliotecanapoletana.it/assets/archivio/libri/diritto03/177.pdf
Bartoli biography on wikipedia : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniello_Bartoli
Condition: Binding rubbed, headcaps and lower spine worn, small hole on page 145, foxing on pages 108 and 109. Red edges faded. Good interior condition.
