Search Results: Black History from ARTEM

Obscure early lyrical poem about a Black American raging against slavery, promising "the revenge of a smoldering black revolution"
Doigny du Ponceau (1750-1830).
Discours d'un negre a un Européen, piece qui a concouru pour le prix de l'Académie Françoise, en 1775.
Paris, Demonville, 1775.
8°. 15, [1 blank] pp. Collates: A8. With woodcut head- and tailpieces.
Contemporary half calf with marbled sides, red title-shield, red edges.
[bound with 11 elogies].
First and only edition of a rare lyrical poem against slavery and racism by the little known author Doigny du Ponceau. It is set up as a fake contestant for the prize of the French Academy in 1775.This text falls within the theme of a speech of an enslaved maroon who, confronted with execution, accuses the Europeans of their oppression and threatens them with revenge. This is found in French lyrical poems closely related to each other, ranging from 1759 to 1790, begun in 1759 by l'abbé Guillaume Antoine Lemonnier, with his Discours d'un nègre… Read More

• Extremely rare, important and early work on East Africa and the East Indies • João dos Santos (Évora, after 1560 - Goa, 1622).
Ethiopia Oriental e varia historia de cousas notaveis do Oriente.
[Including:]
Varia historia de cousas notaveis do Oriente. E da christandade que os religiosos da Ordem dos pregadores nelle fizerāo
Évora, (colophon vol. 2: Impresso no Convento de S. Domingos de Evora), Manoel de Lyra, 1609 (colophon vol. 2: printed in 1608).
2 volumes in 1. 8°. [8], 140; [3, 1 blank], 123 ll. (index bound after title in vol. 2). Collates: [pi]6, 2[pi]2, A-R8, S4; A, Q4-Q6 [= index], A2-A8, B-P8, Q3 (complete).
Vol. 1 with an engraved title-page depicting a female figure seated on a crocodile (dragon?), an elephant, a palm tree, a lion and a church in a landscape, surrounded by an architectural border with the image of Saint Dominic in a cartouche at the top. Signed Bras Nunes Fecit; vol. 2 with the title-page in a woodcut architectural border with two caryatids and an inset… Read More

Aphra Behn's masterpiece in a rarely seen edition


Aphra Behn (1640-1689); Pierre-Antoine de La Place (1707-1793) [transl.].
Oronoko imité de l'Anglois. Nouvelle edition, revuë & corrigée […].
Paris, Sebastien Jorry, 1756.
2 parts in 1 vol. 12°. XVI, 112, [4], 188, [4] pp. = complete with the Approbation and advertisement leaves at the end (not called for in bibliographies and library records).
Contemporary quarter calf, marbled sides, title label.
Very rare and interesting third edition of the first French translation of Aphra Behn's masterpiece Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave (London, 1688). This famous female author's novel presents a black person as sympathetic for the first time in Western literature and strongly denounces the cruelties of slavery. It is about an African prince who is tricked into slavery and sold to European planters in Surinam, ending in rebellion and execution. It also includes a description of Surinam and its inhabitants. Author Aphra Behn is considered the true first… Read More