1013 - LA SERRE (Jean Puget de). THE LOVE AFFAIRS OF THE KING AND THE QUEEN, under the names of Jupiter and Juno, with the splendors of their wedding, or the moral history of France during the reign of Louis the Just and Anne of Austria. The whole work is enriched with a large number of illustrations.

LA SERRE (Jean Puget de). THE LOVE AFFAIRS OF THE KING AND THE QUEEN, under the names of Jupiter and Juno, with the splendors of their wedding, or the moral history of France during the reign of Louis the Just and Anne of Austria. The whole work is enriched with a large number of illustrations. Paris, Nicolas Bessin, Denis de Cay, 1625. In-4°, [40]-441-1bl. pages, ivory vellum (contemporary binding). A rare first edition whose 28 full-page ENGRAVINGS rank it among the foremost examples of Baroque illustration. The book celebrates the marriage of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria and describes, in fictional form, the festivities, ceremonies, games, and ballets of the era. The illustrations depict the sovereigns as standing above ordinary mortals, thereby transforming their political and private actions into a celestial epic, or even a pastoral romance; every gesture of the king is a “bolt of lightning,” every glance of the queen is a “star.” Jean Puget de La Serre, born in 1594 in Toulouse, was the author of more than one hundred works, which earned him the title of historiographer of France. One engraving is duplicated (counted among the 28, including the frontispiece title and the two portraits). The two blank leaves (ee2 and Tt2) are present. The preface differs from the copy held by the BNF (which does not mention the engraved title). (USTC 6020468 lists 32 preliminary pages). 19th-century endpapers; the front endpaper extends over the engraved title, which has a missing section; a few stains.