[MALHERBE (François de)].

Recueil des plus beaux vers de Messieurs de Malherbe, Racan, Maynard, Bois-Robert, Monfuron, Lingendes, Touvant, Motin, de Lestoille, et autres divers auteurs des plus fameux esprits de la Cour. Reveuz, corrigez et augmentez. Paris, Toussaint du Bray, 1630. 2 volumes in-8, green morocco, medallion of laurels gilt in the centre, spine decorated, inner lace, gilt edges (19th century binding). The most complete edition of this famous collective poetic collection, known as the "Malherbian collection" because the aesthetics of François de Malherbe, who died two years earlier, and his school are predominant. The 1630 collection, the last published by Toussaint du Bray, contains 518 pieces, 85 of which are new, the other 433 having already appeared in the 1627 collection. It was reprinted identically in 1638. Pp. 865-870 are hardback, as in almost all copies, the ode to the Duke of Savoy by Maynard having been suppressed by order of Richelieu. A very fine copy, divided into two elegantly bound volumes. The title leaf is repeated at the head of the second volume. The text shows old handwritten annotations and corrections attributed to Racine by the bookseller-expert Henri Leclerc (1862-1941), the predecessor of Louis Giraud-Badin, according to a note written in pencil on a flyleaf. However, this attribution appears to be risky. From the library of Joseph Renard (1881, n°655), silk dyer and illustrious collector from Lyon, with bookplate and autograph note on a guard. The copy then belonged to Julien Félix (1827-1900), attorney general in Rouen and president of the Société rouennaise de bibliophiles, with ex-libris. The final errata page could come from another copy. Lachèvre, I, 66-69.