Pierre de RONSARD. Elegie sur les troubles d'Amboise. 1560. Booklet in-4, modern vellum. Barbier, Discours, 1 et seq. // Tchemerzine-Scheler, V-437. (6 f.) / A4, B2 / 164 x 225 mm. Very rare first separate edition of this work, which marks the birth the birth of a patriotic and committed literature, unknown before Ronsard (Barbier). The text had previously appeared in the first collective edition of his works, in the Cinquième livre des Poèmes. Apart from typographical errors that were corrected in later editions, the importance of this edition is revealed by verse 7 on folio A2: the word livres will later be replaced by the word arms. As the enemy seduced by books The people devoye who falsely follow him We must confuse them by arguing with books With books to assail him, with books to answer him which will become: You have to confuse him by arguing over books With weapons to assail him, with weapons to answer him. This hardening of tone was prompted by the Vassy massacre that had just taken place, and by the reactions of indignant Protestants. Ronsard resolutely sided with the king, encouraging him to fight his enemies not with books, but with arms. Jean-Paul Barbier-Mueller, in his Bibliographie des discours politiques de Ronsard, has identified three different editions, giving numerous details to help identify them. The present copy contains all the first printing remarks noted by Barbier-Mueller on the copy in the Bibliothèque publique et universitaire de Genève. This primitive state of the Élégie sur les troubles d'Amboise is extremely rare. Barbier thought the Geneva library copy was unique. There are now two!