RONSARD (Pierre de).

Ɵ Les Amours, newly augmented by him. With the Continuations of the said Amours, & some Odes of the Author, not yet printed. Plus, le Bocage & Meslanges. Rouen, Nicolas le Rous [Antwerp, Christophe Plantin], 1557. In-8, havana morocco, jansenist, interior lace, gilt edges on marbling (Hardy). An extremely rare edition, published during Ronsard's lifetime. It is a Plantinian forgery, with the address of Rouen; it obviously does not include any unpublished piece. What makes the great interest of this counterfeit, it is that it reproduces very exactly the lesson of the copied editions princeps, except for orthographic corrections (J. P. Barbier-Mueller). Divided into three parts in separate pagination, the edition includes: the Amours (copy of the Parisian edition of 1553, without the comments of Muret), the Continuation of the Amours, with a particular title (copy of the original edition of 1555), and the Bocage and the Meslanges (without particular title, copy of the original editions of 1554 and 1555). Les Amours appeared in 1552 at the Veuve Maurice de La Porte. It is the best known of Ronsard's works, thanks to which the poet earned his first nickname of "French Petrarch". A fine copy, despite a small rubbing on a nerve of the spine. From the libraries of Clinchamp (1860, n°238), Félix Solar (1860, n°1232), W. Martin, F. Herbert and Auguste-Pierre Garnier. J. P. Barbier-Mueller, II-1, n°21. - Diane Barbier-Mueller, Inventaire..., n°697.