Tragedies Sainctes. Dauid combattant. Dauid triomphant. Dauid fugitif.
Geneva, F. Perrin 1566.
8vo (181 x 112 mm.). 272p. FORTY PAGES WITH PRINTED MUSIC, a woodcut Perrin title device.
Gilt-ruled crushed green morocco (Niedrée, 1846), richly gilt spine and gilt-lettered title, all edges gilt, green silk marker.
First Surviving Edition: “A SIGNIFICANT PROPORTION OF DES MASURES’S PLAYS IS SUNG” (Dobbins). His dramatic trilogy on the Old Testament hero and king contains eleven hymns with printed music and homophonic four-voice settings in the manner of the Genevan Psalter. Some were sung by David, such as Des Masures own translation of Psalm 140, and others performed by the chorus. Protestant Claude Goudimel (1514-72) may have composed the music, as in 1564 he collaborated with Des Masures on a psalter.
Mixing classical dramatic and medieval mystery play traditions, the Davids combine a deep psychological realism with a staunch Calvinist message of perseverance in the face of persecution. “Of great importance to anyone studying the poetry of French-speaking Protestants” (Barbier-Müller, tr.), the plays’ simple language allowed them to be staged by amateurs. They are full of references to contemporary events, TRANSFORMING BIBLICAL TRAGEDY INTO POLITICAL COMMENTARY. The trilogy remained popular well into the next century. In 1627, Montbéliard school students mounted them for the ducal court and twice for the public.
Archival records show that Perrin printed a now lost 1563 edition; the plays were also reprinted in Antwerp (1582) and in Geneva (1583). No copy of that offered here is in any North American library. In good condition (one leaf lightly stained), from the libraries of Alphonse Willems (1839-1912), Gerrit Arie Lindeboom (1905-86) and Jean-Paul Barbier-Müller (1930-2016).
¶Lebègue, La Tragédie religieuse en France: les débuts (1514-1573) 337-67; Dobbins, “Music in French Theatre of the Late Sixteenth Century” in Early Music History 13 (1994) 90-7; Barbier-Müller, Ma bibliothèque poétique IV(1): 92 (this copy) & 93 (1583 ed.); Cullière, “Bibliographie de Louis des Masures” in Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 47 (1985) 646; Bibliographie des psaumes imprimés en vers français, 1525-1900 edd. Noailly et al. 1566/02; Chaix-Dufour-Moeckli, Les Livres imprimés à Genève de 1550 à 1600 64; GLN-2313; Cioranesco 7661; see Soleinne’s Bibliothèque dramatique 762 (1583 ed.).
Price: $15,000.00