La Philosophie D’Amovr.
Paris, A. Vitray or Vitré 1622.
12mo (135 x 74 mm.). [xii], 286 [r. 288]p. Large roman type, typographic title vignette.
Early 19th-century mottled sheep (front hinge cracked, rear rubbed), flat spine and blue morocco label gilt (compartments with a bunch of grapes), marbled edges.
Only Edition of this gallant and rather fantastic text by Louis XIII’s Chamberlain. Humières investigates the psychological, material and spiritual aspects of love and particularly its connection to the natural world — from the northern lights, oceans, fountains, weather and earthquakes to plants and particularly the heavens. He draws on the full range of human emotion, ancient mythology, classical learning, models of behavior (admired and not), politics, crime, music, etc. It had at least two printings (and possibly three) to 1628: I have not located a copy of any outside Paris. In good condition, bookticket of the collector and architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-79) and a manuscript note on the flyleaf possibly in his hand. Overlooked by the standard sources on psychology and psychiatry.
¶Gay, Bibliographie des ouvrages relatifs à l’amour III: 730; Baldner, Bibliography of 17th-Century French Prose Fiction 193; Arbour, L’Ère baroque 10612; Cioranescu 35830.
Price: $4,200.00