HORACE (Quintus Horatius Flaccus). Opera omnia.... Lot 6

HORACE (Quintus Horatius Flaccus). Opera omnia. [To the title of the 1st part] Basileæ, apud Ludovicum Regem, [to the titles of the following parts:] Coloniæ Munatianæ, impensis Ludovici Regii, 1615. 3 parts in 2 volumes bound in one folio, about 1000 pp. in discontinuous pagination with several numbering errors, first title printed in red and black, text printed on 2 columns; brown morocco, smooth spine decorated with a semis of Lorraine crosses and bordered with fleur-de-lis, similar decoration on the boards with gilt coat of arms in the center, filleted edges, gilt edges; binding rubbed with visible restorations, headpieces damaged with leather missing, often heavy foxing with occasional marginal spotting (period binding). Edition published in Basel by Ludwig König, in a text accompanied by the rich commentaries of the philologist Pierre Gaultier-Chabot established from his manuscripts by the writer and Calvinist theologian Johann Jacob Grasser. BEAUTIFUL ENGRAVED FRAME ON COPPER BY MATTHÄUS MERIAN on the first title. Woodcut letterpress mark on the other two titles. BINDING WITH THE ARMS OF HENRI DE LORRAINE, FUTURE DUKE OF GUISE (OHR, pl. n° 52, iron n° 1). Endowed with several abbeys from childhood, archbishop of Rheims at the age of fifteen, Henri de Lorraine (1614-1664) became duke of Guise by the successive deaths of his elder brother (1639) and then of his father (1640), and then left the ecclesiastical state. He led an adventurous life: linked to all the opponents of Cardinal de Richelieu, he took up arms against France and was sentenced to death in absentia (1641), but obtained a pardon after the death of Louis XIII in 1643. He then tried to make himself king of Naples, using the inheritance of his ancestor René d'Anjou, and twice took the city from the Spaniards, but in vain, in 1647 and 1654. He then remained in France and, appointed Grand Chamberlain, was one of the most prominent figures at the Court. Copy quoted by Joannis Guigard in his Armorial du bibliophile (vol. II, p. 80). Provenance : former collection of the Marquis de Morante (n° 783 of the catalog of the auction of his library, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, February-March 1872). Rector of the University of Madrid, Joaquín Gómez de La Cortina (1808-1868) built one of the most important libraries of his time.