BILLON (François de). Le Fort inexpvgnable de... Lot 14

[BILLON (François de)]. Le Fort inexpvgnable de l'honnevr dv Sexe Femeninin, construit par Françoys de Billon, Secretaire. On les vend a Paris, Chez Ian d'Allyer, Libraire, 1555. Small in-4°, havana morocco, double gilt fillet framing the boards, gilt fleuron at the corners, spine ribbed, gilt edges (Bound by C. Lewis). [VI] ff. + 256 pp. (numbered 257) + [III] ff. (with numerous numbering errors). A portrait of the author on the title, two large allegorical figures repeated nine times (6 + 3) and frames loaded with canons adorning the following nine titles: - "Motif, et Attache d'Ecarmovche", - "La Grosse Tovr d'invention, et composition des Femmes", - "Premier Bastion de ce fort svr la force et magnanimite des Femmes", - "Devzieme Bastion svr la Chaste et Honnestete des Femmes", - Third Bastion on the Clemency and Liberality of Women", - "Fourth Bastion on the Devotion and Piousness of Women", - "Counter-myriad of this fort, made on the expert talk of the Palm, for the Precedence of the Honor of its Kind. La Plvme aux Dames", - "Comment les nations de l'Evrope la ou les Femmes sont tenues plus Subiettes, les Hommes en sont aussi plus subietz [...]", - "Reqveste qve la plvme fait aux Dames en faueur des Secretaires, de la diuine Source de leur Etat [...]" "This treatise is a compilation of anecdotes on all the remarkable women of classical antiquity, modern Italian and Lyon" (L. Saulnier). From the library of the Duke of Orleans, with wet stamp on the title, accompanied by another illegible one. Spines and covers slightly rubbed. Rothschild, 1837; Gay, II, 342.