RONSARD (Pierre de).

Ɵ The first four books of the Odes. Ensemble son Bocage. Paris, Guillaume Cavellart [sic], 1550. In-8, tan calf, double framed with three cold filets, gilt fleuron in the center and small fleuron at the corners, spine ribbed, modern box (Period binding). First edition of the first poetic collection of Ronsard (1524-1585). A first state copy, without the 2 suravertissement leaves but containing the 2 errata leaves. The collection contains only unpublished poems, except for three pieces. The publication of the Odes ronsardiennes resounded like a thunderclap in the world of the Letters in XVIe century, shattering then the landscape of the poetry in France. Nourished by the works of Pindar and Horace, Ronsard, who does not hide his disdain for the old school, presents himself not without pride as the first Lirique François author and boasts of having first enriched the French language with the term "ode", an old poetic genre prized by the authors of Antiquity: when you call me the first Lirique François author, and the one who guided the others on the path of such an honorable work, then you will return to me what you owe me [....]. I went to see the foreigners, & made myself familiar with Horace, counterfeiting his naive sweetness, in the same way that Clement Marot (the only light in his years of vulgar poetry) worked at the pursuit of his Psalter, & dared the first of the others, to enrich my language with this name Ode. The work aroused the strongest reaction from the Marotics: a literary battle, known as "Querelle du Louvre", began between the Ancients and the Moderns, represented on one side by Mellin de Saint-Gelais, official poet at the court of Henri II, and the young Ronsard. We bound the continuation : - L'Hymne de France. Paris, De l'Imprimerie de Michel Vascosan, 1549. First edition of this poem exalting the national feeling, in 224 decasyllabic verses with flat rhymes; it is the first hymn composed by the poet who claims the glory of being the first to celebrate France. (J. P. Barbier-Mueller, II-1, n°2. - Cat. Ronsard : la trompette et la lyre, n°19.) - Ode de la paix. Paris, Guillaume Cavellat, 1550. First edition, known in 7 copies only according to J. P. Barbier-Mueller. Ode belonging to the pindaric genre, in which Ronsard sings in 500 verses the peace which was signed that same year 1550 with England: France paid 400000 gold ecus and the English gave back Boulogne. In addition they evacuated Scotland (J. P. Barbier-Mueller, II-1, n°8.) Precious volume gathering three works of Ronsard's youth, preserved in a Parisian binding strictly contemporary with the editions. It comes from the libraries of Eugène Piot (1891, n°482), Tobie Gustave Herpin (1903, n°107), Robert Hoe (1912, n°2929), William Augustus White and F. M. Weld. Some light foxing, small light wetness to a few leaves. Binding restored at corners, spine redone. J. P. Barbier-Mueller, II-1, n°5. - N. Ducimetière, Mignonne..., n°3. - Cat. Ronsard : la trompette et la lyre, n°46. - Diane Barbier-Mueller, Inventaire..., n°673, 670 and 676.