GOURNAY (Marie Le Jars de).

Ɵ Versions of some plays of Virgil, Tacitus, and Saluste, with the Institution of Monseigneur unique brother of the King. Paris, Fleury Bourriquant, 1619. In-8, brown morocco, double gilt fillet with corner fleuron and set of cold fillets in frame, oval medallion with azure arabesque decoration in center, spine decorated, gilt edges (Bernasconi). First edition of this work in which Mademoiselle de Gournay (1566-1645), daughter by marriage of Montaigne, asserts her desire for literary recognition as a translator and defends the ancient poetry and its heirs. After her dedication to the king, Mademoiselle de Gournay delivers a remarkable Treatise on poetry which is in fact a violent indictment against literary modernity: after having heard from the mouth, & read all the exceptions & reasons of this [new] Poetry, this one declares loudly & clearly that I want to write, rymer, & reason with all my power, after the fashion of Ronsard, Du-Bellay, Des-Portes,& their associates & contemporaries. To serve as an argument and to show the superiority of the old poetry over the new, she intends to compare two different versions of the translation of Virgil's Aeneid: that of Jean Bertaut, bishop of Sées, and her own, which are printed afterwards, the first in Roman characters and the other in italics. Slight rubbing to the nerves.