ESTIENNE (Henri) - Lot 17

Lot n° 17
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ESTIENNE (Henri) - Lot 17
ESTIENNE (Henri) The Introduction to the Treatise on the Conformity of Ancient Wonders with Moderns. Or Preparatory Treatise to the Apology for Herodotus. Without place [Geneva, Henri II Estienne], The Year 1566, in November. Bound with: [ESTIENNE (Henri)]. Warning [...], concerning those who without taking care of the argument, judge it & speak at the fly [...]. Without place or date [Geneva, Henri II Estienne, 1567]. 2 works in one volume in-8, of (16) ff. and 572 pp. ; (24) ff. : long-grained red morocco, framed by two fillets and gilt motifs in the corners, smooth spine richly decorated, inner scroll, gilt edges (English binding around 1790-1800). Original editions. Second issue copy of the Introduction, with the corrections imposed by the Council of Geneva. The most controversial passage at the time concerns the right of "couillage" or concubinage. The Avertissement d'Henri Estienne, bound after his Introduction which it completes, is very rare. Unknown to Renouard, only a handful of copies are known to exist, so much so that Robert Samuel Turner had a facsimile made in 1860. (Schreiber, The Estiennes, #162, for a copy of the facsimile: "The original edition of this little pamphlet is as rare as the suppressed first issue of the Apologie, and today survives in a very few copies." - GLN no. 2336: only two copies of the Avertissement are listed in public collections, in Aix-en-Provence, Bibliothèque Méjanes, and in the Bibliothèque de Genève). A masterpiece of Renaissance pamphleteer literature. A biting satire of 16th-century mores, mainly directed against the Church of Rome, Italy and the Spaniards. To explain the horrors of the time, Henri Estienne draws on contemporary tales and novels: Rabelais, Heptameron, Bonaventure Des Périers (he is the first to attribute the Cymbalum mundi to him). The work, condemned by the great Council of Geneva, was pursued by both Catholics and Huguenots. In the Avertissement that he printed a few months later, without the authorization of the Council of Geneva, Estienne defended his book and provided a valuable table of chapters. After the setbacks of his Introduction, this new mark of insubordination earned the author a new ban and imprisonment. A very fine copy, richly bound in an English workshop at the end of the 18th century. Handwritten inscription in the corner of a title page: Edo. opt. [for Editio optima]. The last two leaves of the first work, blank, have not been preserved. A few light freckles, a small ring of wetness at the foot of some quires. (Brunet, t. II, col. 1076-1077. - Renouard, Estienne, p. 126, n° 7.)
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