Our book features a peculiar frontispiece, illustrating another slang word: capucinade. Two inmates are lying on the ground in the middle of a dormitory, with their trousers around their ankles. They embrace each other in front of dozens of inmates who look at them. On the right, two characters have also dropped their trousers, showing their naked bottoms. The caption reads, La Capucinade. Our rat explains that this is a violent way to extort newcomers: the inmates, pretending to start a ritual, drop their trousers and kiss a lying and half-naked man one by one. When the newcomer lies down on the naked man, some inmates jump on him and beat his naked bottom with rolled handkerchiefs until he reveals where he has put his money (sometimes he has left it with a trustworthy friend, says our rat—as if such a man was ever to be found in such a place). If he has no money, he has to empty the faeces barrel of the dormitory (another character, on the left of the engraving, is obviously filling up the said barrel). Now, what a weird engraving! Half-naked men embracing each other in a prison cell? Come on... “Honi soit qui mal y pense!” laughs our rat. But this capucinade—no explanation given for the name (a capucin is a monk)—makes no sense. Could it be a slang drawing, giving information that only certain rats can fully interpret? Why don’t they simply corner newcomers and beat them up until they speak? That sounds reasonably more efficient. But honi soit moi! After all, criminals may just need some human warmth, from time to time—why shouldn’t they combine business with pleasure?
Rats’ massacre
Our rat crawled away on a promise he didn’t fulfilled. The second part of Le Rat du Châtelet was never published and the names of the monsters of infamy never revealed. What happened to him? Was he fait (caught) while trying to débiner (run away)? Or was he coltiné (arrested) by a newly converted revolutionary who had him marrying the widow (hanged)? Or was he still incarcerated in Le Châtelet when, in September 1792, the Revolutionaries decided to put most prisoners to death? They accused them of plotting with foreign monarchies against the Republic, so they murdered 1,300 of them in Paris alone—and some 150 in the rest of the country. In his Histoire de la Révolution (1848), Jules Michelet wrote: “A dreadful mob swarms the abbey of Le Châtelet at seven in the evening; they start to blindly massacre the prisoners with their swords and rifles. They don’t spare forty out of two hundred.” The bodies were later carried to a nearby town, and buried in a common grave. Who knows? There might have been, among the dead, a little wet rat nobody took notice of? If so, may Havre (God) have mercy on his wicked rat soul.
Le Rat du Châtelet, (anonymous), no place, no printer. 1790 / 1 in-8° volume: frontispiece, title page (author’s note at the back), 48pp (numbered from 3 to 51). Read it here : books.google.fr/books?id=Ed1BAAAAcAAJ
Le Vice Puni ou Cartouche, (anonymous / Nicolas Racot de Grandval), Anvers. 1725 / 1 in-8°volume: frontispiece, title page, avertissement (2pp), 105pp, Dictionaire Argot-François (6pp).
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Francesco Colonna. Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. €200,000 to €300,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Nausea. De principiis dialectices Gorgias, and other works, Venice, 1523, morocco gilt for Cardinal Campeggio. €3,000 to €4,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Billon. Le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, Paris, 1555, Parisian calf gilt for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld. €120,000 to €180,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Salinger, J.D. The Graham Family archive, including autographed letters, an inscribed Catcher, a rare studio photograph of the author, and more. $120,000 to $180,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of Sense and Sensibility, the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Massachusetts General Court. A powerful precursor to the Declaration of Independence: "every Act of Government … without the Consent of the People, is … Tyranny." $40,000 to $60,000.
Heritage Auctions Rare Books Signature Auction December 15, 2025
Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/9a74d9ff-42dd-46a1-8bb2-b636c4cec796.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.")
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
