1692 Donneau de Visé, Le combat de Stein-Kerke/Steenkerque.

Rare first edition, published on the privilege of the Mercure galant (see: Editions clandestines de la fin du XVIIème siècle p. 105 (Nouvelles études lyonnaises 1969).

The battle of Steinkerque (today Steenkerque in Walloon Belgium) took place on August 3, 1692 and resulted in a French victory over the League of Augsburg. At the end of the book is a list of officers wounded and killed in the battle.

Jean Donneau de Visé (Vizé), playwright, novelist, journalist (1638-1710) was first an enemy of Molière. This mediocre author of comedies took part three times in the L'École des femmes quarrel with two plays, Zélinde ou la vraie critique de l'École des femmes and La Vengeance des marquis, and then with the Lettre sur les affaires du Théâtre; the rivalry between him and Molière also led him to write La Cocue imaginaire. He was then reconciled with him, to the point of being part of a family council in 1675 to look after his daughter's interests, and later to deliver her funeral oration. He wrote, among other things, a Lettre sur la comédie du Misanthrope, a highly praised presentation of the work, as well as a collection of anecdotes, Les Nouvelles nouvelles (1663). In 1672, he founded the famous Mercure galant, a monthly gazette to which Thomas Corneille contributed, and which earned him a royal pension and accommodation in the Louvre. He had two successes towards the end of his life with Circé (1675), a machine play written in collaboration with the same Thomas Corneille, and a comedy, La Devineresse (1679), which echoes the poisons affair.