FOUCQUÉ (Michel).

Ɵ La Vie, faictz, passion, mort, résurrection, et ascension de nostre Seigneur Iesus Christ selon les quatre sainctz Evangelistes. Paris, Jehan Bien né, 1574. In-8, soft vellum with cover, traces of binding, handwritten title on the smooth spine (Binding of the time). Very rare first edition of this epic poem inspired by the New Testament, through which the author "weaves in verse & gallic language" the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The author, perpetual vicar priest of Saint-Martin in Tours, dedicated it to Charles IX. The title is decorated with the typographical mark with a snake and an ivy stem, used by Jean Bien né (or Bienné) who was then managing the printing office of Guillaume Morel whose widow he had married. A fine copy, in contemporary vellum. It bears on the title two old handwritten ex-libris, one of which is from the library of the Saint-Aubin monastery in Angers. Diane Barbier-Mueller, Inventaire..., n°357.