A Bourdeaus, par S. Millanges, 1595.
8vo [156 x 100 mm] of (12) ll., 176 pp., (4) ll., 775 pp., (1) p. Ivory vellum, gilt fillets on the covers, gilt foliage medallion on the covers, flat spine decorated. Contemporary binding.
Final edition, the first one acknowledged by the author and bearing his name, reviewed and enlarged by Pierre Charron compared with the two previous ones published, one in Bordeaux in 1593 counting 450 pages less, the other in Paris in 1594 with 457 pages less.
Tchemerzine, II, 244; Index Aureliensis, 135, 769: A. Cioranesco, Bibliographie de la littérature française du XVIe siècle (Paris, 1959), n° 6446; L. Desgraves, Bibliographie Bordelaise : Bibliographie des ouvrages imprimés à Bordeaux au xviè siècle et par Simon Millanges (Baden-Baden, 1971), n° 162.
This edition, the first one mentioned by Brunet (I, 1809) and Graesse (II, 123) is in the eyes of the bibliographers the most important one.
It is dedicated to king Henri IV (leaf m2).
Its value, according to Morgand, is identical even superior to the original of 1593 (Tchemerzine, II, 244).
Pierre Charron (1541-1603), son of a Parisian bookseller, met Montaigne; he “lived quite familiarly with my Lord Michel de Montaigne, knight of the King’s order. Mr. de Montaigne loved him with a reciprocal affection, and before he died, in his will, he allowed him after his death to wear the arms of his noble family, since he didn’t leave any male child”.
But it isn’t yet Montaigne’s influence that appears in Charron’s first treatise, Les Trois Vérités, published in Bordeaux in 1593 under the pseudonym of “Benoist Vaillant, Advocat de la Sainte Foi”.
This is a dogmatic book that refutes the Traité de l’Eglise (Treatise of the Church) or Traité de la veritable religion chrétienne (Treatise of the true Christian religion) by the Huguenot chief Duplessis-Mornay: these three truths are an sole God, an sole religion (the Christian one), an sole Church (the Catholic one).
This rigorous, rational, theological work, drew the attention to him. The bishop of Cahors, without knowing him, other than through his book, named Charron his vicar-general and theological canon of his church.
“We don’t read much Pierre Charron’s theological works anymore, and it is a great pity, as we would avoid the errors of interpretation that we usually do about his ‘Sagesse’”.
Florimond de Raimond’s copy (1540-1601), Catholic writer and friend of Montaigne and Charron, successor to Montaigne at Bordeaux’s parliament.
Florimond will take up some texts by Montaigne in order to fight again Protestants. His path was not straight.
He is the author of numerous works listed in the bibliographie Fragonard, n° 1597 and following.
Precious copy bearing the manuscript ex libris « Flor. Raemondi » handwritten on the title, preserved in its elegant decorated contemporary vellum binding.
