Le chant du cocq françois
“The uniqueness and rarity of the work are what make it valuable.”
Very rare and sought-after first edition published in 1621 of one of the earliest literary works contrasting the Christian Europe of Louis XIII with Islam.
“This precious original lies at the intersection of historical narrative and chivalric romance, in which the main hero, Samuel Korecki, recklessly takes up arms against the ‘infidel Crescent’ (Em. C. Antoche).
The superb Labédoyère’s copy bound in morocco by Derome the young.
8vo of (8), 221 pp.
Green morocco, triple gilt fillet on covers, decorated smooth spine, inner gilt, gilt edges. Derome the young, towards 1760.
160 x 95 mm.
Baret, Jacques. Le chant du cocq françois. Au roy. Où sont rapportées les prophéties d’un hermite allemand de nation, lequel vivoit il y a six vingts ans, dont aucunes ont desja esté accomplies au royaume de Boheme, & Palatinat ; & les autres predisent que le roy doit reünir toutes les fausses religions à la Catholique, & se rendre empereur de l’univers. Ce qui est encores confirmé par plusieurs autres predictions anciennes de saincts personnages bien approuvez ;
Paris, par D. Langlois, 1621.
Very rare and sought-after first edition.
Baret (Jacques), Sieur de la Galanderie, a lawyer who later became a referendary in the Chancellery of France, was born in Tours in 1579, the son of Jacob Baret, the king’s prosecutor in the provostship of that city. It seems that, despite his profession, his love of literature prevailed over the study of jurisprudence; and this strong inclination led him to adopt as his motto, “sic vos vita beabit,” an anagram of his two Latinized names, “Jacobus Baretus.” Of the only two works he published, one is highly sought after and ranked among rare books; it is titled: “Le Chant du Coq françois, au roy, où sont rapportées les prophéties d’un hermite allemand”; Paris, 1621, in-12. The work consists of two parts: in the first, which contains the Chant du Coq, the author endeavors to prove to Louis XIII that he must go to war against the Turks to bring them to the Catholic faith. The second is a collection of various revelations, all of which tend to announce the triumph of the Church over heresy. It is likely the uniqueness and rarity of the work that make it valuable.
The royal privilege dates from May 7, 1621.
In Le Chant du Coq françois, A prophetic work requiring special research, Jacques Baret strives to convince King Louis XIII that he must join the crusade against the Ottomans in order to defeat them and convert them to the Catholic faith. This is already mentioned in the *Histoire sommaire*, when the author discusses the embassies sent in 1618 to the French court by Sultan Osman II: “[...] fearing that His Majesty might one day take up arms against him, and that he might fulfill the ancient prophecies stating that the Turkish Empire would ultimately be subjugated by a King of France, descended from the line of the great Saint Louis, who in his time was the terror of the infidels.”
According to Baret, a potential alliance between the “heretical” rebels of Bohemia and the Ottomans posed a grave threat to Christendom. Hence the prophecy that the King of France would join forces with the Holy Roman Empire to fight their common enemies until the liberation of the city of Constantinople.
We are far from being able to gauge the impact of a book like *Le Chant du Coq françois* on the minds of educated people in the first half of the 17th century.
Certainly, by the 19th century, belief in prophecies was waning, and some authors were less forgiving of this genre of literature. We know what Jean-Louis Chalmel wrote in his *Histoire de Touraine* regarding *Le Chant du Coq françois*: “[...] it is likely the uniqueness and rarity of the work that give it its value.”
“As for Jacques Baret, born near Avranches around 1545, he was one of Postel’s most devoted disciples and embraced all his fanciful ideas. We have a very singular book by him, entitled “Le chant du Coq françois, in which are recounted the prophecies of a German hermit, announcing that the King of France must unite all false religions and become emperor of the universe” (Paris, 1621, in-8.). One notices a passage where the author predicts that “Barenton, for having given birth to Guillaume Postel, will become one of the most famous cities in the world.”
It is highly likely that Baret was influenced by the prophecies of Giovanna Veronese and that he drew much of his information from Postel’s works, material that was, in fact, essential to him for writing *Le Chant du Coq françois.
A superb copy of this very rare and sought-after first edition bound in green morocco by Derome the young fromLabédoyère’s library.
