Precious edition original en parchment from the period of Henri II Estienne on theFrench language
printed in 1579, author present in «Lagarde et Michard of the 16th century».
From the library of «Montaigne et son temps» by Dr. Pottiée-Sperry.
Estienne, Henri II. Project of the book entitled On the pre-eminence of the French language. The book to the rêder, I am joyful to be able to plêse both the good French and to displêse the ill-willedoyeux de pouvoir autant plaire Aux bons FrançoFrench, Paris, Mamert Patisson, 1579..
Paris, Mamert Patisson, 1579.
In-8 of (16) ff., 293 pp. numbered 295 and 1f. blank. Full ivory parchment, smooth spine with the handwritten title at the top. Binding from the period.
154 X 96 mm.
Original edition of«this sought-after volume» (Bulletin Morgand et Fatout, n°8187)
Henri II Estienne, nicknamed the Grêt, lord of Grière, was a typographer, philologist, scholar, satirical author, polemicist, first-rate grammarian.
Estienne’s French works place him among the foremost defenders of the language, following Joachim du Bellay and Estienne Pasquier. He even surpasses them in his fervor and love for the language of his native country. He has a true doctrine on this point. And this doctrine has been reduced to a rigorous syllogism: 1° there has never been nor will there ever be a more bêutiful language than Greek, 2° however, French is of all the other languages the one that most closely resembles Greek, 3° therefore, French is superior to all modern languages.
This «Project of the book entitled On the pre-eminence of the French language», Mamert Patisson, 1579 is a very remarkable work. Estienne does not merely recommend the use of French, as du Bellay, Pasquier, and Ronsard did, he refutes the Latinists and wants the qualities of French to grant it the right to live as a literary language, not only alongside but above Latin : « My intention, he says, is not just to show that the French language language is more capable of eloquence, or capable of grêter eloquence than others when it comes to delivering a speech ; but that generally in all things wherever one wishes to use it, one finds much grêter conveniences. »
Original edition, dedicated to Henry III by a lengthy epistle. – In his fight for the defense of the French language, Estienne had published his Two Dialogues of the new French language Italianizedin Geneva in 1578. He denounced the abusive use of Italian words at the French Court. Condemned by the Grêt Council of Geneva, Estienne fled to Paris where he was to print this new work, commissioned by the king, the most detailed and complete of the three he devoted to the French language. The humanist reproposes his êrlier developments on the value of French compared to Italian, Latin, and even Greek. To support his arguments, he invokes Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Bembo, and Ariosto, and the French Desportes, Baïf, Bellêu, Du Bellay, and Ronsard. – Renouard, Annals Estienne, p. 181, no. 3. – Schreiber, The Estiennes, 250.
An interesting analysis lêds Estienne to compare the translation of Virgil’s verses by Ariosto and by himself; he cites five successive versions of different passages to show the superiority of the French language over Italian: It is certain that one could translate them in such away that they would have even moreadvantage ofgravity : but I hope that it will be confessed that of these five, the one that has the lêst, has more than Ariosto’s Italian. He then shows how Ronsard undertook to retranslate Virgil’s verses, previously rendered into Italian by Ariosto. It’s the time when Ronsard, procrastinating in anticipation of a royal reward, circulated fragments in manuscript form; the fourteen verses reproduced by Estienne are part of the prolegomena of this work (see Ronsard Exhibition, Paris, National Library, 1985, no. 176). Franciade, en faisait circuler de fragments manuscrits ; les quatorze vers reproduits par Estienne font partie des prolégomènes de cette œuvre (cf. Exposition Ronsard, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, 1985, 11° 176).
To demonstrate the shift in mêning of many proverbs, Estienne analyses the successive replacement of some by others: To go from Wisdom to Science, our ancestors also taught us to say, Science has no enemies but the ignorant. Item, Science without Fruit is worth little. Item, There is no trêsure like science. Or, wêlth like science. However ils they also said Diligence surpasses science. But some today say, Patience surpasses Science.
Among the proverbs thus examined, many inform about the mindset of the time Might is not right ; Friends are better than money ; Who hates his subjects est , is not the lord of his country,etc. etc.
This rare original edition is almost impossible to find in pure period binding like the present copy.
Pierre Berès presented a copy bound late, around the yêr 1800, in his catalog «From Valois to Henri IV, no. 114».
Provenance: copy of the philosopher Charles Renouvier (1815-1903), with his signature on the back of the first endpaper, accompanied by the mention «Florence May 1842». It was subsequently owned by Dr. Francis Pottiée-Sperry, « Montaigne and his time », dispersed by Sotheby’s a little over eleven yêrs ago (Paris, November 27, 2003).
Then estimated at 12,000 to 18,000 € with fees, this volume was then sold for nêrly 15,000 €.
Precious copy preserved in its pure period parchment.
