Les Sovspirs Amovrevx.
Paris, T. Jouan 1583.
12mo. (129 x 71 mm.). 60 leaves.
Gilt-ruled crushed red morocco (David), gilt monogram HM in the upper right corner of the front panel, gilt spine, title and date, all edges gilt over marbling, tricolor silk marker.
First Edition, one of the first publications by the alchemist, silkworm enthusiast, canon and romance writer. The Amorous Sighs comprises sixty-eight sonnets and a handful of other poetic forms charged with violent and melancholic imagery. One long poem, “The Alchemist”, contains an elaborate allegory of transmutation, while another poem reveals an acrostic with a rude message to an unreceptive lover. In the middle appears Nicolas Le Digne’s verse satire mocking excessive Petrarchism — ironically applicable to much of Béroalde de Verville’s verse. Two copies in the U.S. In good condition, bookplates of Henri Monod (1843-1911, Catalogue (1921) 31), Auguste-Pierre Garnier (1885-1966) and J.P. Barbier-Müller (1930-2016); once in the collections of Alphonse Willems (1839-1912) and Gerrit Arie Lindeboom (1905-86).
¶Pallister, “Beroalde De Verville’s ‘Stances de la Mort’ and ‘Soupirs Amoureux’: Specimens of Baroque Poetry” in Nottingham French Studies 9 (1970) 57-70; Barbier-Mueller, Ma bibliothèque poétique IV(1): 27 (this copy); Gay & Lemonnyer, Bibliographie des ouvrages relatifs à l’amour, aux femmes et au mariage III: 1141-2.
Price: $4,800.00