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one of the most important works of the Grand Siècle

Clovis ou la France chrestienne, poème héroique

1661

RARE SECOND EDITION

1 200 

1 in stock

Description

RARE SECOND EDITION A sumptuous quarto work illustrated with a burin-engraved frontispiece by Nicolas Pitau after Charles Lebrun, an equestrian portrait of Louis XIV by Jean Couvay after Sébastien Bourdon and 26 magnificent etched plates, four by Abraham Bosse and twenty-two by François Chauveau.

This is the very first work to use, for each of the 26 books making up this vast heroic poem, an illustration resulting from the juxtaposition of three separate plates; it is also the first example of figures mixed with figures in the history of engraving in France.

This second edition, which is almost identical to the first published 3 years earlier (1657), contains a certain mystery that a meticulous study might help to unravel. Apart from the new title page, a few additional remarks printed in the margins and the reworking of a few verses, it conforms in every respect to the original edition (identical placement of the engravings, headbands, fleurons, initials and signatures of the sections) and includes the same handwritten correction on page 363, hope for spy.

Since it is unlikely that the italic characters used to form the composition of the poem's 11,000 lines remained untouched for three years, the most problematic hypothesis is that Desmarets made a few corrections at the end of the first printing. A second printing would have been made quickly, but the second publisher, Florentin Lambert, would not have distributed the work, with a new title page, until three years later.

Only the first two quarto editions included the full set of engravings, lettering and endpapers; after some criticism, Desmarets also reduced the work to 20 livres from the third edition (1666, in-12).

Copy in contemporary binding.

Paris,Florentin Lambert,1661.In-4, Bound,[20] ff. - 464 pp. - 24] pl.

Light marginal spotting to a few leaves, paper slightly yellowed, small marginal wormholes, marginal tear to p. 319. Pagination error. Pagination error at the beginning of the Ddd section.

Bio

Jean DESMARETS de SAINT-SORLIN

(Paris: 1595 - 28 October 1676)

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