Paris, chez la Veuve M. Guillemot, 1617. Avec Privilège du Roi.
8vo [166 x 101 mm] of (5) ll., 175 ll. (misnumbered 165), (24) pp. A few foxing. Granite-like brown calf, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt fleurons, red morocco lettering-piece, red edges. Contemporary binding.
First edition of this extremely interesting work about the religious wars in Provence in the 16th century. Brunet, III, 1692; Graesse, Trésor de livres rares et précieux, IV, p. 513.
Honorat Meynier was born towards 1570 in Pertuis, near Aix-en-Provence, and died in 1638. It is as an engineer that he took up arms, and distinguished himself in the Religion and League wars. Towards 1608, he quitted, withdrew in Provence, and composed several works, including Les Principes et les Progrès de la guerre civile, Paris, 1617: according to Papon, it is an abbreviated and very partial history of the wars in Provence since the death of Francis I until 1592. (Nouvelle biographie générale, XXXV, 290-1).
“This Book starts with the death of Francis I, in 1547, under the Count of Grignan, Governor of Provence, & ends in 1592. This historical work is the best & the most known of all those composed by Meynier.” Claude François Achard, Histoire des hommes illustres de la Provence, ancienne et moderne, p. 520.
This copy presents an ancient handwritten note on the endleaf emphasizing its rarity:
« Ouvrage très rare et dont les savants regrettent la rareté parce qu’il est le plus complet que nous ayons sur la guerre civile de Provence pour cause de religion. / Very rare work and scholars regret its rarity since it is the most complete we have on the civil war of Provence for religious reasons. »
A beautiful copy of this interesting history of the Religious wars in Provence, preserved in its contemporary binding.
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