RONSARD, PIERRE DE
Les Oeuvres de P. de Ronsard. Gentil-Homme Vandomois. Paris: variously Nicholas Buon, Samuel Tibout and Matthurin Henault, 1609-1630. Eleven volumes in five, bound in smooth beige morocco by David of Paris, covers with triple gilt fillets, spines gilt, marbled endsheets and pastedown, edges gilt over marbling. 5 1/2 x 3 inches (13.9 x 7.6 cm); various paginations, with several idealized portraits of Ronsard, delicate initials, headpieces etc. scattered throughout. A fine set, the copy of Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac (1855-1921) with his ex-libris, and with near certainty bound for him.
The complete works of "The Prince of Poets" Pierre Ronsard, a mixed set of early 18mo editions as follows: I: Amours (Marthurin Henault, 1629); II: Les Odes du Roy Henry II (Nicolas Buon, 1609); III: Les Quatre Premiers livres de la Franciade (Nicolas Buon, 1617); IV: Le Bocage Royale (Ibid., idem); V: Les Eclogues et Mascarades (Ibid., idem); VI: Les Elegies (Ibid., idem); VII: Les Hymnes (Samuel Tibout et Rolin Baraigne, 1630); VIII: Les Poemes (Ibid., idem); IX: Discours des miseres de ce temps (Ibid., idem); X: Les epitaphes de divers suiets (Ibid., idem); XI: Recueil des sonnets, odes, hymnes, et autres pieces (Ibid., idem).
Robert de Montesquiou, poet, aesthete, dandy and art collector, was painted by Whistler (which painting now hangs in the Frick Collection), and by Boldini. He was likely the model for the aesthete des Esseintes in Huysmans' A rebours. He was also a close acquaintance of Marcel Proust, and the character of Baron Palamede de Charlus is certainly based in large part on him. Tchemerzine V, 492. Brunet IV, 1376.
Provenance:
Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac (1855-1921) with his ex-libris (his sale Paris, 23 April 1923, lot 52, for 800 FF)
Auguste-P. Garnier, of the Parisian publishing family with ex-libris.