Le Tombeav De Tres-Illvstre…Princess Margverite De France Dvchesse De Savoie Et De Berri Inscript Le Tombeav De Minerve.
Annecy, J. Bertrand 1575.
8vo (168 x 107 mm.). 8 leaves.
Dark brown morocco (slightly faded), vertically gilt-lettered spine title.
First Edition. These twenty-four French sonnets celebrate the life and grieve the death of Marguerite of Valois, Duchess of Berry and Savoy (1523-74). The daughter of François Ier, she was a patron of the Pléiade and part of a female-led intellectual community at the Parisian court, which included her aunt Marguerite of Navarre and sister-in-law Catherine de’ Medici. She married the Duke of Savoy late in life and relocated to Chambéry, then Turin.
The author, a native of Savoy, joined the household of Marguerite, who acted as his protector and to whom he dedicated much of his work. After her death in 1574, he published this tender memorial. I have found copies at Turin, Geneva and the BnF (2 exx.). In good condition (pale stain to the top edge of first gathering), from the library of Jean Bourdel.
¶Stacey, Marc-Claude de Buttet 1529/31-1586: L’honneur de la Savoie no. 19 & fig. 12; Picot, Catalogue des livres de James de Rothschild 3260.
Price: $6,800.00