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[LOUIS-CLAUDE BRUYSET] DE MAN[EVI]EUX
Traité sur la connoissance du Royal Jeu de Paume. Neuchâtel [but Lyon?]: [no publisher], 1783. 8° (20.1 x 11.9cm). Collation: [*4] a4 A-X4 [**2]; [8] [viii] 172p. Woodcut head-piece (lower margins watertstained), contemporary orange boards backed in red roan, flat gilt spine tooled with title and repeated star (covers soiled, extremities worn).
Provenance: 13-line contemporary ms note at end of the last chapter, giving further information about M. Tissier who is included in the table of amateurs under Lyon (along with De Manevieux himself). Tissier is said to be a distinguished chemist, with a taste for art, an agreeable musician and "joueur de paume avec passion" who was also able to persuade his wife to play. She would have become a strong player had she been able to continue, her figure and graces making her greatly admired (and perhaps being the cause of some of De Manevieux's positive views about female players), but her pregnancy meant that she could only follow the game as a spectator ("spectateur" crossed through and changed to "amateur" in another hand). Next to the name "M. Tissier" on the table, the words "et Madame son epouse" have also been added. Exhibited: The Queen's Club, 2004, no. 304.
FIRST EDITION. De Manevieux dedicated his book to the comte d'Artois, the youngest son of Louis XVI and later Charles X, who built his own court in the rue de Vendome, Paris, in 1786. While d'Artois escaped to England during the Revolution, de Manevieux fell victim to the terror and was executed in his home town of Lyon in mid December 1793. As an aristocrat, he may not have wished to be too strongly associated with the authorship of a book on jeu de paume, hence the omission of certain letters of his name on the title, and the cause of its very limited circulation. According to de Luze, de Manevieux was first identified as the author by Bajot in the second edition of Eloge de la paume (Paris, 1806).
In the foreword to his book, de Manevieux claims to have been unacquainted with any other treatise on tennis. While it was, of course, not the earliest treatise, it was what Noel and Clark (p. 286) aptly describe as "the first human document, if we may so call it, on tennis". No other book had been so discursive or so full of names for, to quote the same authors, it "was the first to give us any real description of the methods and strength of the great players of the day (professional and amateur) and of the condition and character of various courts" (p. 9). De Manvieux made no claim to be a great player, saying of himself, "Je ne suis pas un amateur de la premier force". However, his book offered useful advice to fellow amateurs on the dimensions of the court and the basic equipment needed, on how to play well, and not least on how to avoid placing bets on games which they or their acquaintances could not possibly win against more skilled professionals. Another hazard he warns against is wearing shirts and socks belonging to the court which have not been properly aired and dried, and that have been worn by countless other people.
Nevertheless, despite the trickery involved, and despite what he recognises as the game's declining state, de Manevieux clearly has a great love of the game and respect for its best players, the last two chapters being devoted to the names and skills of the most senior professionals and the strengths of the best amateurs; in the latter he makes a powerful plea for more women to be allowed to play tennis, mentioning several from the third estate that already do. At the end of the treatise comes the table, listing towns in France and elsewhere that have courts and giving the names of their best-known amateurs.
De Manevieux expressed some eagerness to receive any additional information that might be included in a new edition with illustrations. With the outbreak of revolutionary violence, no second edition ever appeared, and the first has become OUTSTANDINGLY RARE. An English translation by Richard Travers appeared in 2004. Henderson p. 187.
Traité sur la connoissance du Royal Jeu de Paume. Neuchâtel [but Lyon?]: [no publisher], 1783. 8° (20.1 x 11.9cm). Collation: [*
Provenance: 13-line contemporary ms note at end of the last chapter, giving further information about M. Tissier who is included in the table of amateurs under Lyon (along with De Manevieux himself). Tissier is said to be a distinguished chemist, with a taste for art, an agreeable musician and "joueur de paume avec passion" who was also able to persuade his wife to play. She would have become a strong player had she been able to continue, her figure and graces making her greatly admired (and perhaps being the cause of some of De Manevieux's positive views about female players), but her pregnancy meant that she could only follow the game as a spectator ("spectateur" crossed through and changed to "amateur" in another hand). Next to the name "M. Tissier" on the table, the words "et Madame son epouse" have also been added. Exhibited: The Queen's Club, 2004, no. 304.
FIRST EDITION. De Manevieux dedicated his book to the comte d'Artois, the youngest son of Louis XVI and later Charles X, who built his own court in the rue de Vendome, Paris, in 1786. While d'Artois escaped to England during the Revolution, de Manevieux fell victim to the terror and was executed in his home town of Lyon in mid December 1793. As an aristocrat, he may not have wished to be too strongly associated with the authorship of a book on jeu de paume, hence the omission of certain letters of his name on the title, and the cause of its very limited circulation. According to de Luze, de Manevieux was first identified as the author by Bajot in the second edition of Eloge de la paume (Paris, 1806).
In the foreword to his book, de Manevieux claims to have been unacquainted with any other treatise on tennis. While it was, of course, not the earliest treatise, it was what Noel and Clark (p. 286) aptly describe as "the first human document, if we may so call it, on tennis". No other book had been so discursive or so full of names for, to quote the same authors, it "was the first to give us any real description of the methods and strength of the great players of the day (professional and amateur) and of the condition and character of various courts" (p. 9). De Manvieux made no claim to be a great player, saying of himself, "Je ne suis pas un amateur de la premier force". However, his book offered useful advice to fellow amateurs on the dimensions of the court and the basic equipment needed, on how to play well, and not least on how to avoid placing bets on games which they or their acquaintances could not possibly win against more skilled professionals. Another hazard he warns against is wearing shirts and socks belonging to the court which have not been properly aired and dried, and that have been worn by countless other people.
Nevertheless, despite the trickery involved, and despite what he recognises as the game's declining state, de Manevieux clearly has a great love of the game and respect for its best players, the last two chapters being devoted to the names and skills of the most senior professionals and the strengths of the best amateurs; in the latter he makes a powerful plea for more women to be allowed to play tennis, mentioning several from the third estate that already do. At the end of the treatise comes the table, listing towns in France and elsewhere that have courts and giving the names of their best-known amateurs.
De Manevieux expressed some eagerness to receive any additional information that might be included in a new edition with illustrations. With the outbreak of revolutionary violence, no second edition ever appeared, and the first has become OUTSTANDINGLY RARE. An English translation by Richard Travers appeared in 2004. Henderson p. 187.
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