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92
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[BENSERADE, Isaac de].
See original version (French)
92
-
[BENSERADE, Isaac de].
See original version (French)
Estimate €1,500 - €2,000
Voluntary lot
Description
[BENSERADE, Isaac de].
Ovid’s *Metamorphoses* in Rondeaux.
Paris: Royal Printing Office, Mabre Cramoisy, 1676.
In-4, (7) ff., 463 pp., (4) ff., illustrations. 19th-century imitation speckled fawn calfskin, decorated ribbed spine, fawn title and date labels, compartments decorated with small ironwork and gilt fillets, triple gilt fillet framing the covers with angular fleurons, gilt roulette on the edges, red edges (ribs, edges and corners rubbed, mouthpiece very slightly split).
First edition of Isaac de Benserade’s poems, based on Ovid’s *Metamorphoses* and set in French rondeaux.
A very fine edition illustrated with a magnificent frontispiece engraved by Sébastien Leclerc after a drawing by Charles Le Brun, and numerous in-text vignettes drawn and subsequently engraved on copper in black by Chauveau, Leclerc or Le Pautre (signatures within the images for several of them).
Beautiful proofs.
Dedicated to the Dauphin, Louis of France, it was extremely expensive for the time and is said to have been prompted in particular by the Sun King’s fleeting passion for Madame de Ludre, a canoness of Poussay and a friend of the author (the text contains one dedicated rondeau and evocative acrostics).
This copy is enhanced by an original drawing, finely executed in pen and ink wash (unsigned), which served as the model for the engraving on page 18; it is mounted here opposite the frontispiece.
An old handwritten note in pencil on the flyleaf of the ex libris indicates that one of the book’s former owners possessed three original drawings by Chauveau for the engravings.
Provenance: The collection of Emmanuel Martin, including a fine 19th-century engraved bookplate bearing a motto (see *Livres anciens illustrés par les plus grands artistes des 18e et 19e*, published in 1877) – an old engraved bookplate bearing a monogram (19th century).
Beautiful proofs, Backer-Sommervogel, II, 1482 and V, 1518. Brunet, IV, 18.
Tchemerzine, I, 614.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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