LA TAILLE (Jean de).
Ɵ Le Blason des pierres précieuses contenant leurs vertuz & proprietez. Paris, Pour Lucas Breyer, 1574. Booklet in-4, blue morocco, jansenist, interior lace, gilt edges (Thibaron).
First and only edition, decorated with a beautiful title in a frame composed of four woodcuts decorated with putti, foliage and scrolls, a portrait of the author and the heraldic figure of the latter (lion rampant) in an oval medallion.
It is dedicated to Marie de Clèves, wife of prince Henri de Condé. Henri III, who had fallen madly in love with her, mourned her death in 1578, as did Ronsard who composed the poems Sur la mort de Marie.
Jean de La Taille was born around 1540 in the castle of Bondaroy, near Pithiviers, and died at the beginning of the 17th century. This poet attended the classes of Marc-Antoine Muret and had Ronsard and Du Bellay as oracles. He took part in the first three wars of religion by serving as a soldier in the ranks of the Huguenot army.
The work begins with a treatise on precious stones, where the author lists and describes the virtues and properties of about twenty stones known at the time. It continues with a translation of the Blason de l'aymant by the Alexandrian poet Claudian, of the Blason de la Marguerite, a poem in verse dedicated to Marguerite of France, queen of Navarre, and of some epigrams.
Handwritten bookplate at the end of the volume: Etteilla 1774.
A copy from the libraries of Ernest Stroehlin (II, 1912, no. 815) and Raphael Esmerian (I, 1972, no. 84), the famous diamond dealer and bibliophile.
Upper hinge cracked for about 10 cm.
J. P. Barbier-Mueller, IV-3, n°24. - Caillet, n°6174. - Diane Barbier-Mueller, Inventaire..., n°446.
