Paris, André Wechel, 1558.
12mo booklet [152 x 91 mm] of 23 ll. Very discreet old restoration on the upper corner of 2 ll. not affecting the text. Bound in full 19th century red morocco, blind-stamped pattern on the covers with gilt fleurons, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt fleurons, inner gilt border, gilt edges.
Very rare first edition of this poem of classical high culture composed by one of Rabelais’ contemporaries. Catalogue Rothschild n°665; Brunet, V, 642; Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes, IV, 16.
“Poem composed by more than a thousand epic verses. The subject is taken from the eleventh fable of the sixth book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.” (Brunet)
“The volume ends with Barthélémy Tagault’s motto: ‘Agam sola virtute beatus’, and with Greek and Latin verses signed by J. Courtier, C. Utenhove and François Thoreau”. (Picot)
The work is a languishing description of Boreas’ Loves, and of the rape of Orithyia, daughter of Erechteus, king of Athens.
“ʽLe Ravissement d’Orithye’, printed in 1558, with a dedication to M. Roger de Vaudetar, Councillor at the Parliament Court, & Lord of Poully. The subject of this poem is taken from the eleventh fable of the sixth book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. But the modern poet has extremely extended it. His play has about 40 pages, & encloses more than a thousand epic verses, where the alternation of masculine and feminine rhymes is strictly respected. This is a description of Boreas imaginary loves for Orithyia daughter of Erectheus, King f Athens, & of Orithyia’s rape […]. It appears in the dedication, which is also in verse, that Tagault was young when he composed it. And at the end he says that it was his first work.” (C.-P. Goujet, Bibliothèque françoise, ou Histoire de la littérature françoise, pp. 106-107)
A beautiful copy of this very rare poetry work of the 16th century, finely bound in 19th century decorated red morocco.
Our researches allowed us to locate only one copy in the world of this very rare booklet, at the B. n. F! No copy appeared on the public market since the beginning of the reports in 1870.
Provenance: from Léon Duchesne de la Sicotière’s library with his engraved ex-libris.
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