BOYSSIÈRES (Jean de). Lot n° 25

Ɵ Les Premières œuvres amoureuses. Paris, Pour Claude de Montreuil & François Taber, 1578. In-8, burgundy morocco, polylobed fleuron in the center, interior lace, gilt edges on marbling (Chambolle-Duru). First edition, very rare. It is decorated with a woodcut portrait of the dedicatee, François d'Alençon, duke of Anjou and brother of the king, whom the author names his Herculle François. Born in Clermont-Ferrand in 1555, Jean de Boyssières first studied law, then entered the service of the Duke of Anjou, participating as an officer in the siege and capture of Issoire (June 1577), a Protestant stronghold in Auvergne. He then abandoned his weapons in favor of his pen: he tried his hand at the epic genre, publishing two epics (La Boyssière and La Croisade), translated Ariosto, and even experimented with spelling. He is thought to have died in the 1580s or, at the latest, in the early 17th century. The Premières œuvres amoureuses contain stanzas, odes, sonnets (and double sonnets, a form of versification that the Auvergne native was one of the first to introduce in France), laments, elegies, songs, epigrams, speeches, etc. The volume opens with poems in praise of the author, including one signed by Victor Lelluau, a forgotten poet from Auvergne, and a few pieces dedicated to the "victory" of Issoire. The major part of the poems are devoted to the love torment of the poet who sings his passion for Silvie, undoubtedly an imaginary muse: You will see, by reading, the beauties of Silvie / [...] Read these verses employed of my most ieunes iours, / True faithful tesmoins of my chaste loves. One will point out the curious poem Des humeurs de la femme, where Boyssières shows himself particularly odious towards the beautiful sex, comparing the woman to an animal, the most malicious which is. Precious copy bearing on the title the autograph signature of the poet Guillaume Colletet (1598-1659), whose first poems were printed in the Parnasse satyrique. This admirer of Ronsard, who joined the French Academy at its creation in 1634, was also a bibliophile and historian of French poetry. Very rare provenance. From the library of T. Herpin (1903, n°212).