About this Item
According to Jean-Paul Barbier, only one copy is known: his, ?washed, in a modern binding, 205 mm high?. The present copy is the second known, ?unwashed, in an antique binding, 214 mm high?. Extremely rare first state - of the second family of editions of 1563 of the ?Continuation du Discours des Miseres de ce temps?. ?This edition of 1563 differs from the first of 1562 only by the date? mentions Tchemerzine. ?These original editions contain a number of verses that are not included in the collection of works printed in 1584 and since. In these speeches in verse, the author recounts with an energetic eloquence the evils that the Calvinists caused to France during the minority of Charles IX; this drew violent responses from the supporters of the reform? (Brunet). In the Continuation du Discours des Miseres de ce temps (Continuation of the Discourse on the Miseries of this Time), Ronsard took up the defense of the Catholic party and, above all, the unity of France, which had been caught up in the turmoil since the Vassy massacre (1562). Théodore de Bèze?s opponent, but also a critic of the internal failings of the Church, Ronsard engaged in polemical combat, in which he suffered many pamphlets. Perhaps uncomfortable with these endless rivalries, but forced despite himself to lend his pen to the king's party, the poet jointly produced these political epistles in verse and poems to the new Genèvre. The ?royal poet? was in action, producing 14 highly varied discourses, all marked by a strong deliberative rhetoric and a mixture of noble and colloquial tones. Ronsard alternately admonishes, exhorts, deplores, advises and flatters his many readers, appealing to their consciences and urging them to act, in other words, for the poet, to respect the old order. - Followed by : Ronsard, Pierre de. Institution pour l?Adolescence du Roy tres chrestien Charles Neuvième de ce nom. A Paris, chez Gabriel Buon, 1564. Only 4 copies recorded by J.P. Barbier. 6 leaves signed A by 4 and B by 2. There are 26 verses on the current page, 16 verses on the first page of text and 14 verses on the last page (in the three editions of 1563, there were 18 verses on the first page, which subtracted two verses from the last page, the current pages remaining the same. There is an advertisement on the back of folio 4. "To my knowledge, this is the only edition dated 1564. I have identified four copies: at Harvard, the Bibliothèque nationale, the Bibliothèque de l'Institut, and this one (Barbier 4, n°19)?. (Jean-Paul Barbier). The Barbier copy, one of the four known, is washed, in a modern binding, 205 mm high; the present copy is unwashed, in an antique binding and measures 214 mm. The poet's advice to the eleven-year-old king he loved so much, whose untimely death later left him inconsolable, was largely inspired by a Latin epistle that the future chancellor Michel de l'Hospital had addressed to Charles IX's brother François II in 1559 ("De sacra Francisci II. Galliarum regis initiatione.?), and Joachim du Bellay's translation of this epistle (?Discours sur le sacre du treschrestien Roy Françoys II."). Although this play is ranked among the political speeches of the Vendôme region (and although it includes advice to punish seditionists), the quarrels sparked by religion are hardly mentioned. The Institution was written around the time of the failed Colloque de Poissy, in autumn 1561. Following in the tradition of the advice given by Erasmus to the young Charles V and by Budé to François I, and sometimes departing word for word from the declarations and warnings uttered by the good L'Hospital, the Institution, composed ?as a moralist, not a pamphleteer? (R. Aulotte, in Renaissance Studies in Honor of I. Silver: 37), does not contain any powerfully original ideas. But the vigorous tone that was to characterise the Discourses of 1562-1563, the poet's sense of harmony, vivacity and elevation of spirit are already evident in the first line, which sums up all the advice.
Seller Inventory # LCS-18532
Contact seller
Report this item
