VERSE ON VANITY IN CIVILITÉ TYPE
JACQUEMOT, Jean.
Variorum poematium liber.
[Lyons,] Jean de Tournes, 1601.
[bound after:]
ROLLER, Johann Nikolaus. Varii generis loci et argumenti poemata diversis temporibus elaborata iam vero in unum fasciculum collecta atque in lucem emissa a Joanne Nicolao Rollero. Frankfurt and Leipzig, for Bremen, G.L. Förster, 1763.
Two works in one vol, 8vo, Jacquemot: pp. 160; printed in Roman, italic, and civilité types, woodcut ouroboros device to title, woodcut initials, typographic headpieces; Roller: pp. [xl], 220, [4]; some browning; very good copies, bound together in eighteenth-century mottled sheep, spine gilt in compartments with gilt red morocco lettering-piece (‘VARIA / CARMIN / I.’), edges stained red; extremities a little rubbed, a few small abrasions to boards.
Very rare first edition of this collection of neo-Latin Protestant biblical poetry by Jean Jacquemot (1543–1615), a notable Geneva preacher, poet, and translator, friend of Theodore Beza, here with the original French in civilité type.
Jacquemot’s collection of verse and translation includes Chandieu’s famous Octonaires sur la vanité et inconstance du monde, with the original French text printed in civilité types and a parallel Latin version (translated by Jacquemot in 1591) in italics. The Octonaires had first appeared in 1583, to great acclaim, and had subsequently been included in several anthologies, even undergoing significant format variations: ‘The Octonaires appeared in three different formats that showcase the versatility of Chandieu’s verse, and the versatility of the printing industry’ (Barker, pp. 231-232). It is here bound after the first edition of Roller’s collection of civic Latin verses for various occasions, dedicated to the ‘patres patriae’ of Bremen.
No copies of either work traced in the US. OCLC finds only two copies of the Jacquemot outside continental Europe (BL and CUL) and only a single copy of the Roller (BL).
Jacquemot: USTC 6900112; Cartier (De Tournes) 711; Arbour 3335; cf. Oberlé 132 (other works by Jacquemot); see Barker, Protestantism, Poetry and Protest: The vernacular writings of Antoine de Chandieu (2009). Roller: VD18 10274898; not in Oberlé.
