CORNEILLE (Pierre)

Lot 39
Go to lot
Estimation :
1500 - 3000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 3 791EUR
CORNEILLE (Pierre)
The theatre of P. Corneille. Reveu & corrigé par l'Autheur. A Rouen et se vend à Paris, Chez Guillaume de Luyne, 1668. 4 volumes With : CORNEILLE (Thomas). Poëmes dramatiques de T. Corneille. A Rouen et se vend à Paris, Chez Guillaume de Luyne, et Pierre Trabouillet, 1669-1682. 5 volumes. So 9 volumes in-12 (160 x 90 mm). Red morocco, triple gilt fillet on the boards, spines decorated with nerves, gilt roulette on the necks and the endpapers, gilt edges (binding of the period). We reproduce here the notice of our colleague Dominique Courvoisier, which was attached to the work and after which nothing remains to be added: "Collective edition considered as the prototype of the definitive collectives of Pierre Corneille. Edition printed in Rouen by Laurent Maurry, including the first three volumes of the Poëmes de Thomas Corneille, dated 1669. Volumes IV and V of the Poëmes are addressed to Paris, Pierre Traboüillet, 1682. Contrary to what Picot says, our copy presents some differences with the one described under n°113 of the Cornelian Bibliography: the first part of the Poëmes contains at the end 2 ff.n.ch. with the privilege and the printing completion. The second contains 544 pp. and 2 ff.n.ch. with the privilege. The third contains 584 pp. and 2 ff.n.ch. with the privilege. The IVth and Vth parts conform to Picot's description. The three volumes of the Poëmes dramatiques de Thomas Corneille published in 1669 follow the 1668 edition of the Oeuvres de son frère. There is no IVth and Vth parts at the date of 1669, nor a collective edition printed before 1668. This copy consists of volumes IV and V of 1682, the first regular and collective edition published after 1669. The first three volumes of the Oeuvres de Thomas Corneille are each decorated with a different intaglio frontispiece, added later. A COMPOSITE MARQUIN COPY made from two different copies. Thus, the second volume of Pierre Corneille's Théâtre (slightly shorter margins) is bound identically to the IIIrd, IVth and Vth volumes of Thomas' Poëmes, so that the Ist, IIIrd and IVth of the former are identical in the decoration of the spines to the Ist and IInd of Thomas Corneille." Let us specify here that these differences are only in small details of gilding, which makes the whole coherent and very refined. A very fine copy in contemporary morocco, from the libraries of Anatole France (bookplate) and Gelly de Montela (Dauphiné, 18th century bookplate). Slight uniform foxing on some leaves. Minor marginal tears and light spotting on some leaves, minor rubbing to the bindings. Picot, n° 110. Rochebilière, n° 62.
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue