RONSARD (Pierre de). The Works of Pierre de Ronsard, Gentlem

lot/ronsard pierre de the works of pierre de ronsard gentlem lot 53 y2uAQUG 633150378 / For sale

lot/ronsard pierre de the works of pierre de ronsard gentlem lot 53 y2uAQUG 633150378

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lot/ronsard pierre de the works of pierre de ronsard gentlem lot 53 y2uAQUG 633150378

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RONSARD (Pierre de). The Works of Pierre de Ronsard, Gentlem - Lot 53

RONSARD (Pierre de). The Works of Pierre de Ronsard, Gentleman of Vandoise, Prince of French Poets, revised, expanded, and illustrated with commentaries and notes. Paris, Nicolas Buon, 1623. Two folio volumes, 18th-century binding in marbled calfskin, spines adorned with title labels in red morocco and volume numbers in black morocco, three gilt fillets on the covers with a coat of arms in the center, red edges. Fourteenth collected edition and by far the finest of Ronsard’s works. These two exquisite volumes “have always,” says Jean-Paul Barbier (Ma bibliothèque poétique, vol. II), “been the object of admiration among bibliophiles, despite their late date of publication and even though they contain nothing previously unpublished.” The edition was prepared by Philippe Galland, Jean Galland’s nephew and successor as headmaster of the Collège de Boncourt and as “guardian of the Ronsardian tradition,” who preserved the dedicatory epistle to King Henry III written by his uncle for the 1587 edition. It is enriched, compared to previous editions, by commentaries by Pierre de Marcassus and, above all, by Claude Garnier (notably on the *Discours des misères de ce temps*), assisted by Robert III Estienne. The volume’s exquisite illustration consists of a superb frontispiece title page engraved with a burin by Léonard Gaultier—taken from the 1609 edition and here in its second state—a woodcut portrait of Marc-Antoine Muret, a double portrait of Ronsard and Cassandre engraved on copper by Claude Mellan, a portrait of Nicolas Richelet, commentator on the Sonnets and Odes, engraved on copper by Picquet, as well as several medallion portraits of prominent figures from Ronsard’s time, also engraved on copper. There are ten of these latter portraits in total, six of which were engraved by Thomas de Leu, one by Aubry, and the other three unsigned; they depict Henry II; Charles IX; Henry III; Francis, Duke of Anjou; Henry of Lorraine, Duke of Guise; Anne de Joyeuse; Mary Stuart; the Duke of Epernon; Francis II; and Catherine de’ Medici. Unlike those of Ronsard-Cassandre and Richelet, which are inserted within the text, these political portraits were all printed on the blank reverse sides of pages that were printed only on the front, with the portrait of the Duke of Épernon even appearing on an additional, otherwise completely blank leaf added after printing to section LLLll (between leaves LLLll3 and LLLll4 in the Barbier copy). This two-step production process likely explains the omissions or variations found in the vast majority of copies; according to our research, the simultaneous presence of all ten portraits is extremely rare. Thus, the portrait of Henry III (page 680) appeared neither in the copy belonging to James de Rothschild, now at the BnF (old calfskin), nor in that of Hector de Backer, sold in 1925 (Capé morocco), nor in the Bordes de Fortage copy (Chambolle-Duru morocco); the latter two are cited by Tchemerzine (Bibliography of First Editions and Rare Editions by French Authors), who, incidentally, does not mention this portrait (an omission corrected by Lucien Scheler in his emendations). The magnificent contemporary morocco-bound copy with a coat of arms from the Jean-Paul Barbier collection does not contain the portrait of Charles IX. Several copies that have appeared more recently on the market were described as having only nine portraits (or eleven, if one includes those of Ronsard-Cassandre and Richelet): this is notably the case with the very fine period morocco-bound copy sold by Alde on May 6, 2011 (sold for €38,000) or the copy from the Jules Renard collection in Capé morocco (Drouot, March 3, 2015). Unlike the few copies from major collections we have just mentioned, this copy contains all the portraits printed in the text, but the additional leaf containing the portrait of the Duke of Epernon was omitted—presumably from the outset (as there is no apparent trace of deletion)— to include the supplementary leaf containing the portrait of the Duke of Épernon, which is therefore not present here (note that this leaf is not part of the pagination and was thus added at a later date). A superb copy, very elegantly bound in France in the 18th century in glossy marbled calfskin bearing the coat of arms of the Danish Count Johann-Hartwig-Ernst Bernstorff (1712–1772). This highly accomplished diplomat, appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1751, had resided in Paris as the King of Denmark’s extraordinary envoy in 1747. The copy is preserved in the finest condition, retaining its original freshness. Very rare in this condition. Signed “A. Damien” on the first endpaper; bookplates and stamps from a Russian library on the first page of Volume I and on the title page of Volume II. Acquired by Émile Rossignol in 1950.

Estimate:£4,261.17

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