RONSARD, Pierre de

Les Œuvres de P. de Ronsard Gentilhomme Vandomois, redigees en six tomes Paris, Gabriel Buon, 1567 A SUPERB COPY, WITH LARGE MARGINS AND FORMERLY RULED, OF PERFECT FRESHNESS FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF ERNEST ODIOT, HENRI BORDES AND LUCIEN SCHELER. FIRST EDITION IN-QUARTO FORMAT: "the most beautiful edition of Ronsard that was made during his lifetime" (catalog Édouard Turquety). "ONE OF THE GREATEST RARITIES OF RONSARDIANA" (Hofer, Harvard, n° 463) Second collective edition, increased by fourteen new pieces. Engraved vignettes, headbands, fleurons and initials. Italic characters for the poetry, roman for the commentary 6 volumes in 5 in-4 (228 x 153mm). Copy formerly ruled in pink COLLATION: (Vol. 1, vol. i): 3A-P8 3Q4 a-l8 m2 (the last bl. f.); (vol. 2, vol. II): 2A6 2B-Z8 3A-G8 3H4; (vol. 3, vol. III): 2A-Z8 2+4; (vol. 4, vol. IV): A-S8 T4 V2; (vol. 5, vol. V): a4 b-z8 2a8 2b4 2c2; (vol. 5, vol. VI): A6 B-I8 K2 CONTENTS: Amours followed by the Second Book of Amours (vol. 1); Les Odes (vol. 2); Les Poemes (vol. 3); Les Hymnes (vol. 4); Les Élégies (vol. 5); Discours des misères de ce temps (vol. 6) ILLUSTRATION : portrait of Marc Antoine Muret (volume 1) and five portraits of Ronsard (volumes 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6) engraved on wood BINDING SIGNED BY DURU, dated 1850. Green morocco, framed with gilt filets, spine gilt, edges gilt [RELATED TO THE FOLLOWING VOLUME 3:] seven autograph poems by Henri de Régnier copied on twelve leaves for A. van der Vrecken de Bormans, dated November and December 1923. These sheets of strong paper, left blank until then, had been bound at the end of the volume to thicken it [RELATED TO THE FOLLOWING OF VOLUME 4:] Le Sixiesme livre des poemes de Pierre de Ronsard. Paris, Jean Dallier, 1569 -- Le Septiesme livre des poemes de Pierre de Ronsard. Paris, Fleury Prevost for Jean Dallier, 1569. ORIGINAL EDITION for these two "books PROVENANCE: Charles Giraud, who had the copy bound by Duru (Paris, March 26, 1855, no. 1259) -- Édouard Turquety (Paris, January 22, 1868, no. 100: "the most beautiful edition of Ronsard that was made in his lifetime") -- Ernest Odiot (1828-1890; bookplate; Paris, March 4, 1890) -- Henri Bordes (1842-1911; bookplate; Paris, May 1912, no. 183) -- Édouard Rahir (Bulletin Morgand, nouvelle série, no. 2348, who sold it FF5.700 on March 16, 1913) -- A. van der Vrecken de Bormans (autograph note on the flyleaf; consignment from Henri de Régnier at the end of volume 3, dedicating his poems to van der Vrecken de Bormans) -- Lucien Scheler Vol. I, book 2, pp. 55-56 and pp. 76-78: small marginal restorations; vol. II, pp. 172-174: foxing; vol. V (vol. 6), pp. 46-47: small angular wetness The first collective edition of Ronsard's works was published in 1560, by the same publisher but in a format in-16. The second collective edition of 1567 "is much more beautiful than that of 1560" (Tchemerzine). The large format, the care given to the composition of the page and to the typographical choices as well as the importance granted by Ronsard himself to the classification of his works, answer this notion of "collective edition" to which each writer aspires to see one day his work joining the pantheon of the great literature. It was only in 1957 that a copy of the Ronsard in-quarto entered the collections of the BnF thanks to the bequest of the Rothschild collection. The copy in the British Museum is incomplete. The rare copies offered for sale in the last thirty years are always shorter in margin. This copy belonged successively to the goldsmith Ernest Odiot and to the shipowner Henri Bordes from Bordeaux. EXHIBITION: Lucien Scheler, Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Brussels, May 16-June 27, 1987 BIBLIOGRAPHY : USTC 1462 -- Jean Paul Barbier, Ma Bibliothèque poétique, II, n° 46, pp. 137 and following. -- A. Tchemerzine, Bibliographie d'éditions originales et rares d'auteurs français, V, pp. 476-477 ("extrêmement rare") and p. 451 (for the Sixiesme and the Septiesme livre) -- J.-C. Brunet, Manuel du libraire, IV, col. 1374 -- A. E. Picot, Rothschild, I, pp. 469-471, no. 667