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GOMBAULD, Jean Ogier de - L'Endimion de Gombauld.
See original version (French)
405
-
GOMBAULD, Jean Ogier de - L'Endimion de Gombauld.
See original version (French)
Estimate €600
Voluntary lot
Description
GOMBAULD, Jean Ogier de - L'Endimion de Gombauld. Paris, Nicolas Buon, 1624. In-8, (12) ff. including front, 351 pp. Frontispiece and 16 full-page figures, drawn by Crispin de Passe le jeune and burin-engraved by him, Léonard Gaultier, Charles David or Jean Picart (see Duportal, no. 517). HOFER, Baroque Book Illustration, 1951, 27 (''one of the finest illustrated books of the baroque period in France''), ivory vellum with flaps.
GAY II, 98 (''rare''). TCH III, 437. ARBOUR 12219. LEVER 150. First edition dedicated to the Queen. Gombaud was one of the founders of the Académie française. Familiar with the Hôtel de Rambouillet, he was much appreciated in spite of his numerous oddities and his outward appearance which made his poverty all too apparent. He contributed to the collective work "La Guirlande de Julie". He was received at court, even though he was a Huguenot and made no secret of his convictions. The allegorical Endymion recounts the poet's impossible love for Marie de Médicis, personified in the guise of Diana. He would have done her the great favour of pre-reading it. The Marquise de Rambouillet was remarkably accommodating. At her home, he was able to adjust the modulations of his voice and test his mimicry before the dreaded audition. Anne of Austria was also won over, and encouraged the publication of the work, which was already circulating in manuscript form.
Endymion's odyssey, with its rare poetic force, retains the ambiguity of a dream. The young man whom Pysander discovers on Mount Lathmos (the ancients believed that the moon came down to this mountain to kiss Endymion), where he has come to ward off a lunar eclipse, and who tells him of his adventures, awakes from a deep sleep, astonished to be back in his homeland. He recounts his impossible love affair with the inaccessible Diana, who nevertheless grants him her benevolence. Like the gods, he will gain immortality. Endymion is guilty, in spite of himself, of a sacrilegious act. Having cut the branch of a tree at the request of a young girl, it begins to bleed. We learn that this tree is none other than Diophanie metamorphosed, for whom Hermodan yearns. Captured, Endymion will, to his great joy, be devoted to the sacrifice of Diana, while Hermodan, whose complaints have moved the Gods, will become the sap of the tree and be united forever to his beloved. Endymion himself performs the sacrifice to Diana, because the high priest hesitates at the last moment, troubled by his niece Sténobée (in love with the young man, she falls unconscious). Charron refuses to take him in his boat. Endymion falls asleep under a tree, the fruit of which symbolises vain dreams and the leaves wishes. Diana appears to him for the last time, promising him eternal glory. The din of the inhabitants of Heraclea, who are trying to dispel the eclipse of the moon, wakes the sleeper, who is brought back to the novel's starting point (see analysis in Koerting, I, 163-173).
See original version (French)
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