Ɵ The Paraphrases on the one hundred and... - Lot 31 - Giquello

Lot 31
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Ɵ The Paraphrases on the one hundred and... - Lot 31 - Giquello
Ɵ The Paraphrases on the one hundred and fifty pseaumes of David. Lyon, Claude Morillon, 1613. In-12, overlapping vellum, Du Seuil-style decoration, richly decorated smooth spine, gilt edges, modern case (Devauchelle). First edition of this translation of the psalter by a cantor of Death. It is of great rarity. We have located only 4 copies in public collections (2 in the BnF and 2 others in Besançon). The paraphrases in French verse are each preceded by the first verse of the corresponding psalm of the Vulgate and an argument in prose. Dedicated to the archdukes Albert and Isabelle of Austria, they are preceded by an epistle to the reader in which the poet confides: the sadness caused by the loss of his close relations (in particular his mother), his work starting from the polyglot Bible printed by the ingenious Plantin, his doubts after the reading of the psalms of Desportes, finally his perseverance put to the test, in short, so many elements relating to the genesis of his Paraphrases perceived by him like the cataplasm of my wounds, the basme of the ulcers of my regrets, & the port of my long navigations. What one could say of Malherbe, namely that he rose above the other contemporary authors of paraphrases by his creative talent, it seems to me right to say it also of Chassignet. [...] In the work of the great poet Jean-Baptiste Chassignet, the Paraphrases of the Psalms are not a curiosity for fussy sixteenth-century scholars. It is a truly rare collection (oh happiness of the bibliophile!) (J. P. Barbier-Mueller). Jean-Baptiste Chassignet was born in Besançon in the 1570s and died in 1637. He was a tax lawyer in the bailiwick of Gray (Haute-Saône) and could have been given another title, that of "poet of death", so much his fascination for ugly and perishable things and repulsive descriptions is felt and present in his work, in particular in his masterpiece, the macabre Mespris de la Vie et Consolation contre la Mort, published in Besançon in 1594. This poet had sunk into oblivion when, in the 19th century, Charles Nodier, a Bisontin like him, and Gérard de Nerval, who included him in his Choice of poems (1830) alongside Ronsard, Du Bellay, Du Bartas and Desportes, began to rehabilitate him, thus opening the way to those who will draw him later from the distant mortuary where "one of the hands falls of rot" and "various muscles / serve to the greedy verses of ordinary pasture". A very pleasant copy in an elegant and perfect binding by Devauchelle in imitation of the 17th century. Manuscript bookplate of the time on the title, repeated in various places. Bookplate stamped in black at the bottom of the lining: Bruno Monnier, bibliophile who had installed his important Franc-Comtois library in his castle of Mantry (1984, n°22). Some foxing. J. P. Barbier-Mueller, IV-1, n°64. - Raymond Ortali, Un poète de la mort : J.-B. Chassignet, 1968. - Diane Barbier-Mueller, Inventaire..., n°120.
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