LE MASLE (Jean).

Les Nouvelles recreations poetiques. Contenans aucuns discourses, non moins recreatifs & plaisans, que sententieux & graves. Paris, Pour Jean Poupy, 1580. In-12, fawn calf, double cold fillet, ornate spine, red title page, red edges (18th century binding). A very rare first edition. The work contains various pieces of verse (sonnets, odes, epitaphs, etc.) addressed by the poet to protectors or friends. Of particular note is an interesting Discours contenant en brief l'Origine des Angevins : ensemble des Manceaux & autres nations Gaulloises, a long poem sur l'Excellence des Poëtes & de leur honneste liberté, in which Marot, Dorat, Ronsard, Du Bellay, Baïf and Jodelle are quoted, a terrible Discours des incommoditez de la vieillesse, and a piece addressed to Ronsard and Baïf vrays ornemens de nostre poësie Françoise. Born into a family of minor nobility from Anjou, Jean Le Masle had studied in Paris under Turnèbe and Dorat. His first publication dates back to 1573, and is a hate poem mocking the assassination of Admiral Coligny during the St. Bartholomew's Day. Early handwritten bookplate on title. Small worm gallery in the margin of leaves C12 and D1. Fragile hinges. J. P. Barbier-Mueller, IV-3, n°38. - Picot, Rothschild, n°2933. - Diane Barbier-Mueller, Inventaire..., n°477.