SCEVE (Maurice de). Delie, object of highest virtue. Paris, - Lot 38

SCEVE (Maurice de). Delie, object of highest virtue. Paris, for Gilles Robinot, 1564. In-16, maroq. vert, as. de fil. et fleurons aux angles, dos orné, dent. intér. tr. dor (Koehler). Collection of 449 dizains in praise of his mistress, in imitation of Petrarch, by one of the most famous Lyonnais poets of the 16th century, a friend of Marot and precursor of the Pleiades. As on the edition of the same date published by Nicolas du Chemin, from which it differs only in the typographical mark on the title, the latter bears not the author's name but, at the end of the table of dizains, an huitain A sa Délie, signed with his motto Souffrir non souffrir. These dizains are accompanied by 50 woodcut figures of emblems, in attractive frames, different from those in the 1544 edition. The verso features Maurice Scève's portrait, also woodcut. Délie, a work inspired by the young poetess Pierrette du Guillet, is not just an esoteric poem, arranged with the symbolism of numerical values in mind, "it is such a perfect amalgam of magic formulas, symbols and confessions that no analysis can reduce it to its primitive components, it is the unique masterpiece of Lyonnais humanism...". VERY GOOD EXAMPLE from the libraries of Desbarreaux-Bernard, Ed. Rahir (II, 1931, No. 669) and G.-G. Dubois (bookplate).