LA BOÉTIE (Étienne de). - Lot 72

LA BOÉTIE (Étienne de). Xenophon's Mesnagerie. Plutarch's Rules of Marriage. Letter of consolation, from Plutarch to his wife. All translated from Greek into French by the late M. Estienne de La Boétie. [...]. Paris, De l'Imprimerie de Federic Morel, 1572. In-8, green chagrin, triple gilt fillet, ornate spine, small inner lace, gilt edges (mid-19th century binding). Posthumous first edition of the French translation by Étienne de La Boétie (1530-1563) of Xenophon's treatise on domestic economy and Plutarch's fragments on marriage. Xenophon's treatise is an eulogy of agriculture and country life, with details on ploughing, sowing, harvesting wheat, planting fruit trees and so on. [...] to live from the mesnagerie of the fields is the most beautiful, & the best, & the most pleasant way of life, Xenophon assured us. The work was published by Michel de Montaigne after the death of his friend. The author of the Essais added 28 Latin poems that La Boétie intended for his wife and close friends (including, of course, Montaigne), as well as Extrait d'une lettre concernant quelques particularitez [...] sur la maladie & mort de feu Monsieur de La Boétie. A second-issue copy dated 1572; it does not contain La Boétie's very rare Vers françois (Tchemerzine, t. III, p. 785). Large armorial bookplate engraved W. H. Skrine. Spotting on boards, last leaf (blank) not preserved.