DU TRONCHET (Étienne).

Lettres missives et familières. Paris, De l'Imprimerie de Nicolas du Chemin, 1569. In-4, black morocco, triple gilt fillet, gilt coat of arms in center, ornate spine with repeated numeral, double fillet inside, chocolate brown moire lining and endpapers, gilt edges, slipcase (Honegger). Extremely rare first edition, shared between Nicolas du Chemin and Lucas Breyer. The 1568 edition by Lucas Breyer alone, mentioned by Du Verdier, does not seem to exist. Étienne du Tronchet, a poet from Forez, died around 1585 in Rome, where he had spent the last years of his life. His Lettres missives et familières, in prose or sometimes verse, are addressed to a large number of people, most of whom live or work in Lyon and Forez. Some of the letters are signed with the author's anagram: En heur content se dit. His poems include the sonnet Pour exemple de chasteté, Sur les loüanges de sa maîtresse, and the Sonnet au Roy, sur la pacification des premiers troubles. His poems only ever appeared in this way, mixed with the Lettres missives (see the handwritten note at the beginning of the volume, taken from the catalog of Édouard Turquety's poetic library, 1868, no. 155). Very fine impression by Nicolas du Chemin. The title is set in an attractive woodcut frame with two satyrs each holding a basket of fruit, the same as that used for the collective edition of Pontus de Tyard's works published in Paris by Galiot du Pré in 1573. The text is embellished with large, highly decorative, ornate initials. A morocco copy bearing the collector's coat of arms. Ex-libris of Frédéric Lachèvre, probably brought back from the old binding. Missing the second leaf, with the author's portrait. Smudging on the edges of the last 30 leaves, with the lower margin of the last 2 restored. Renouard, Breyer, n°7. - Picot, Rothschild, n°1876 (for the 1615 edition). - Diane Barbier-Mueller, Inventaire..., n°324.