Jehan DU THIER [Vianesio ALBERGATI ?]. Les louãges de la folie, Traicté fort plaisant en forme de Paradoxe, traduict d'Italien en Francois par... In-8, red morocco beautifully decorated with gilded fillets and scrolls and wide gilded spandrels, spine with 5 ornate nerves, interior lace, gilded edges ( Chambolle-Duru). Brunet, IV-459 // Cioranescu, 9262. (48f.) / A-F8 / 92 x 155 mm. First French edition of the Pazzia, translated by Jean Du Thier. La Pazzia, an anonymous work successively attributed to Ascanio Persio and Ortensio Lando and now returned to its probable true author, Vianesio Albergati, is an Italian prose mockery parodying Erasmus' In Praise of Folly. First published in Italy in 1541, it was translated into French by Jean Du Thier, Controller General of Finances and Secretary of State for the Commands under Henry II. The text praises the virtues of madness, the only thing that removes & banishes from our minds & understanding the tedious, cruel & boring solicitudes, anxieties, pains & passions, and the only thing capable of allowing men, contrary to reason, the most dazzling actions: me scauriez vous nõmer de plus merveilleux fols que furent en leur vivant Alexandre le grãt, & Iules Cesar... Et ie vous demande quelle plus grande folie eceu sceu mõstrer Alexandre, que celle qui feit en Indie,... quand luy mõta par force sur la muraille, & saulta dedans la cite au milieu des citoyēs ses ennemis? A very fine copy, beautifully bound by Chambolle-Duru. Minor chips to second plate and 2 mm to one spine.