LE CARON (Louis). Lot n° 73

La Claire. Or, De la prudence de droit, Dialogue premier. Plus, La clarté amoureuse. Paris, Guillaume Cavellat, 1554. In-8, limp vellum, remnants of binding (contemporary binding). Rare first edition, decorated on the title with a woodcut portrait of the author's muse, repeated on the last flyleaf. The first literary work in French by lawyer and poet Louis Le Caron (1534-1613), published in Paris on his return from the University of Bourges. It contains dialogues on the philosophy of law, exchanged by the author with the aforementioned Claire, a virtuous and learned lady with whom he fell in love and whom he took as a guide in his studies (cf. Cécile Alduy, Politique des "Amours", Droz, 2007, p. 193 et seq.). Numerous love poems are grouped together at the end of the volume, under the title La Clarté amoureuse, a section that occupies 40 leaves, including an ode to Ronsard, prince of the Poetes François. The epistle is dedicated to Claire's cousin: [...] par ton conseil ie metz en lumiere, le dialogue fidel témoin de la constante amitié, que ta cousine & moi faisoit [...]. I aioute quelques carmes François, non pour gaigner le nom de Poëte, & meriter la compagnie des divins esprits, qui par leurs chantz immortalisez eternissent leurs dames, mais pour de décrire l'ardeur de mon desir amoureus, & en lui esteindre toute la mémoire du vulgaire amour [...]. Copy in contemporary vellum. Notebook h detached but still holding to the binding. The two portraits show old traces of redaction. Play in the binding (broken strings), minor vellum loss at the covers. J. P. Barbier-Mueller, IV-3, n°32. - N. Ducimetière, Mignonne..., n°46. - Diane Barbier-Mueller, Inventaire..., n°457.