LA TOUCHE (Michel Quillian, sieur de). Lot n° 68

The Last Week, or Consumption of the World. Paris, François Huby, 1596. In-12, jansenist midnight-blue morocco, interior lace, gilt edges (Chambolle-Duru). Extremely rare first edition of this poem on the theme of the apocalypse. Michel Quillian, sieur de La Touche, a Breton gentleman who died in 1614, divided his poem into seven days, in imitation of Du Bartas' Semaine, but in the opposite direction: while Du Bartas sang of the creation of the world, this poet set out to describe its destruction, endeavoring in the first day to prove that the world will come to an end. Wood-engraved portrait of Henri IV on the second flyleaf, followed by a quatrain. After proving that the world is perishable, he deals, day by day, with the signs heralding the catastrophe, listing the opening of the seals: War, Famine, Plague, the appearance of the Antichrist. [...] As all these signs seemed to manifest themselves in France during the civil wars, the Breton gentleman deemed it useful to take the initiative: his poem was intended to incite readers to repent and prepare their souls for salvation (N. Ducimetière). J. P. Barbier-Mueller, IV-3, n°27. - N. Ducimetière, Mignonne..., p. 425. - Viollet-le-Duc, p. 365. - Diane Barbier-Mueller, Inventaire..., no. 450.