Paris, Denis Thierry, 1657.
8vo [165 x 105 mm] of (13) ll., 798 pp., (2) ll., 1 portrait of the duchesse de Mercœur and 2 full-page engravings. A very few light water stains. Full dark blue morocco, triple gilt fillet on the covers, gilt arms stamped on the centre of covers, spine ribbed and richly decorated with armorial piece, red morocco lettering piece, red edges. 17th century binding.
First edition of this fashionable novel of the 17th century, dedicated to the duchesse de Mercoeur. Brunet, supp., II, 532.
Rozemire is the story of a princess in the time of Attila and the Huns.
The present edition is decorated with a portrait of the duchesse de Mercoeur engraved by L. Spirinx after Beaubrun and with two full-page copper-engraved figures.
A precious copy bound in a very beautiful dark blue morocco in the second half of the 17th century with the arms of the countess of Verua. “Jeanne-Baptiste d’Albert de Luynes (1670-1736) was married at 13,on August 5th 1683, to the coumte de Verrue, in Piedmont, maréchal de camp in the service of France, killed at the battle of Blenheim on August 13th 1703; she was searched by the duc de Savoie, Victor Amadeus II, and finally succumbed to her passion after a long resistance; she masterfully dominated the court of Savoy, but after ten years, as her merry and open spirit wasn’t compatible to the dark character of the duke, she fled from Turin (1700) and came to Paris where she opened her mansion rue du Cherche-Midi to intellectuals and philosophers ; kind, carefree and spiritual, she was leaving an easy life, devoting herself to all pleasures, including those of the mind. The comtesse de Verrue passionately loved the arts; she collected everything that was beautiful; her book collection that contained a majority of novels and plays was made of 18,000 chosen volumes, most of them bound by the best contemporary artists.” (Olivier pl. 799).
Provenance: comtesse de Verrue (coat of arms), comte de Béarn with engraved ex libris (count of Béarn’s catalogue, I, 1920, n°372); Pierre Berès (catalogue 69 dating from 1977).
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