[AUBIGNÉ (Théodore Agrippa d’)].

Ch. Perromat (bookplate with motto, 20th century). 

USTC 6010966. Tchemerzine, I, 167; cf. Brunet I, 546.

A very rare first edition of the first two parts of this collection. A copy from the original print run (five print runs were produced in the same year, each distinguished by subtle differences). The second part begins on page [29] with a special title page bearing the words: “… /Book Two, in which the author, fulfilling the promise made in the first, gives us hope of a third”, and the date M.DC.XVII with no place or printer’s name; on the reverse is a notice “To the Readers”; pages 31–32 are numbered 29–30. “It is likely that Agrippa d’Aubigné (1552–1630), who in this book sharply criticised the customs of the time and certain powerful figures, chose this notation (‘revised and corrected by the author’) in order to preserve his anonymity. No earlier edition is currently known to exist” (Pic, Essai de Bibliographie des Avanture…, 1995). Indeed, Agrippa, a Baroque poet and uncompromising Calvinist, was a man of war and a controversial writer who would often fall out with the King of Navarre… A fine, cleaned copy, elegantly bound by Lortic. An old handwritten note bearing the author’s name can be seen on the title page.