Œuvres en rime - Les Amours
A superb and precious copy on large thick paper preserved in its contemporary gilt vellum.
Two works in 2 volumes in-8 of (8) ff. and 272 ff., (2) ff.; (8) ff. including title and 232 ff.
Flexible ivory vellum with overlap, large gilt fleuron in the center of the covers, gilt-stamped monogram and date on the covers, smooth decorated spine, gilt edges, ruled copy.
173 x 111 mm.
Brunet cites only one copy on large strong paper:
the one offered by Baïf to Queen Catherine de Medici.
Precious copy printed on large strong paper
preserved in its original period gilt vellum binding.
Baïf, Jean Antoine. Œuvres en rime de Jean Antoine de Baïf, secretary of the King's chamber.
Paris, Lucas Breyer, 1573.
Followed by: Baïf, Jean Antoine. Les Amours de Jean Antoine De Baïf. To Monseigneur the Duke of Anjou, Son and Brother of the King.
Paris, Lucas Breyer. 1572.
Period binding.
One of the extremely rare copies on large strong paper mentioned by Brunet (I-612).
First edition of the Œuvres en rime by Baïf, eminent member of La Pléiade, intimate friend of Ronsard and second, partly original, edition of the Amoursby the same Baïf, extremely rare on large strong paper. The thickness of the volumes exceeds by a third that of the copies on ordinary paper.
Tchémerzine I, 264 and 266; Deschamps, Supplément au Manuel de Brunet, I, 86; J. P. Barbier, Bibliothèque poétique La Pléiade, pages 291 and following.
The death of Lazare de Baïf, Jean-Antoine's father, in the autumn of 1547, disrupted the peaceful and studious life of our poet. According to Claude Binet, the orphan Baïf and his friend Ronsard then became the boarders of Dorat at the Collège de Coqueret, of which the humanist is said to have become principal.
Ronsard chose him among the six best poets of the Brigade to form the Pléiade, in memory of the seven Alexandrian poets who, in the 3rd century BC, had placed their group under the sign of the constellation.
“Baïf felt a vocation as a reformer: he wanted to simplify spelling by reducing it to phonetics, and to apply to French poetry the metric verse, scanned like the Latin hexameter. Seeking a concordance between poetry and music, by subjecting both to the same melodic laws, he had the idea, in order to ensure the success of his reform, to found an ‘academy of music and poetry’, both a Conservatory and a French Academy, which was opened in 1570 under the protection of Charles IX, and which counted among its members Ronsard, Desportes, du Perron, Gui de Pibrac.”
Brunet is the only bibliographer to describe a copy on large strong paper and these extremely rare copies appear to have been presentation copies offered by the author with a dedication, but here, since the endpapers have not been preserved, the mystery remains.
“The first part is titled Œuvre en rime, it is dedicated to King Charles IX and begins with an epistle in verse addressed to this prince (in 7 ff.); but the large strong paper copy that I own was presented to Catherine de Medici, and Baïf added to it (in place of the frontispiece and the epistle to the king) a poem (to the Queen) written on vellum in his own hand. This precious copy was sold for 70 fr. at the De Bure sale in 1838. I also own the volume of the Amours, on large paper and bound like the previous one: 1 pound, 14 shillings at Heber. I do not know if the other two parts of Baïf’s poetry also exist on large paper.” (Brunet).
Precious copy on large strong paper preserved in its first period gilt vellum binding.
