Rouen, chez la veuve Thomas Mallard, 1597.
12mo of (12) ll., 528. Rigid vellum with overlapping covers, flat spine, red edges. Contemporary binding.
146 x 78 mm.
Original collective edition of the works of Du Bellay.
According to Abbé St-Léger, this edition is more complete than the previous ones.
Brunet, I, 749.
It presents the complete works of the poet: La Défense et illustration de la Langue Française, l’Olive, le Recueil de Poésies, les Regrets, les Jeux rustiques.
Du Bellay (1522–1560) met Pierre de Ronsard in 1547. From that memorable day dates his poetic vocation.
Around Ronsard, he undertook the task of preparing a poetic revolution. In 1549, Du Bellay published the ‘Défense et Illustration de la langue française’. This work is the manifesto of Ronsard’s school, in other words “la Brigade” (which would soon take the name of the Pléiade). It is known that the first article of its program is the rehabilitation of the French language. Acting as the spokesman for his friends (Ronsard, Antoine de Baïf, Ponthus de Thyard, Rémi Belleau, Jodelle, Dorat) – Du Bellay calls for abandoning the old poetry of Marot and the rhétoriqueurs, as well as the fixed-form genres practiced in France up to that time. He boldly proposes to replace them with the elegy, the ode, the epic—in short, all the genres that were held in honor among the Ancients. Moreover, he wishes to enrich the language by creating new words. This manifesto, as is known, is of less interest for its substance than for the fervor that animates it.
Furthermore, Du Bellay was keen to assert for himself his priority as the introducer of the love sonnet in France: “Si est-ce pourtant que je puis / Me vanter qu’en France je suis / Des premiers qui ont ozé dire / Leurs amours sur la thusque lyre.”
“One considers Du Bellay as one of the finest ornaments of his century. A reputation that he fully justifies. For if he is far from having the power of Ronsard, and, let us say, his richness and variety, Du Bellay appears more sincere in the expression of feelings. Through his sensitivity itself, as much as through his pessimism, Joachim Du Bellay introduces into French poetry a new source of inspiration and, as such, he appears in some way as an ancestor of the Romantics.” Roland Purnal.
Precious copy bound in ivory vellum of the period.
Deschamps, in the supplement to Brunet, cites only copies in later bindings. In 1997, 25 years ago, the Benzon copy, bound in the 19th century by Thibaron-Joly, with margins 5 mm shorter, was sold for 45,000 FF (€6,880).
