BILLARD (Claude).

Tragédies françoises. Paris, Denis Langlois, 1610. In-8, orange-red morocco, triple gilt fillet, ornate spine, the caissons decorated with small irons arranged around a small green morocco umbilicus, interior lace, gilt edges (Ch. de Samblanx). First edition, dedicated to Henri IV and published before the king's assassination in the same year. It contains 7 tragedies: Polyxène, Gaston de Foix, Mérovée, Panthée, Saul, Alboin and Genèvre, each dedicated to one of the kingdom's leading figures (the Princesse de Conti, the Duc de Nevers, the Duc de Rohan, etc.). One of the introductory pieces, praising the author, is worthy of note, as it comes from the author's son, Claude Billard, a fifteen-year-old schoolboy. The playwright Claude Billard, seigneur de Courgenay, was born in the middle of the 16th century in Souvigny, near Moulins, and was advisor and secretary to Queen Marguerite. He was a fervent disciple of Ronsard, whom he glorifies in his notice to the reader, severely criticizing those little court cajoleurs with simple Minerva tonsure who despise the most honorable Manes des Champs-Elysées, this great Ronsard, the Phoenix, the Apollo, & the only Prince of the best Poets of France, before whom they would not dare to appear if he were still alive, except as little secretaries of Saint-Innocent. A very well-bound copy. It comes from the library of General Jacques Willems and appeared in the Berès bookshop catalog, Des Valois à Henri IV, under no. 32. J. P. Barbier-Mueller, IV-1, n°38. - Picot, Rothschild, n°1105. - Soleinne, I, 1843, n°917. - Diane Barbier-Mueller, Inventaire..., n°78.