NEO-LATIN TRAGEDIES
MOUSSON, Pierre.
Tragoediae seu diversarum gentium et imperiorum magni principes. Dati in theatrum collegii regii Henrici magni ...
La Flèche, George Griveau, 1621.
8vo, pp. 15, [17], 402 (recte 392); additional engraved title-page, woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces; light dampstaining towards end, very slight worming to corners of last few leaves, loss to blank corner of penultimate leaf, some creasing to corners, a few small marks; overall very good in contemporary vellum, title in ink at head of spine; a few marks, cockled, wanting front free endpaper; small ‘HL’ stamp to front pastedown.
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Tragoediae seu diversarum gentium et imperiorum magni principes. Dati in theatrum collegii regii Henrici magni ...
First edition, provincially-printed, of four Neo-Latin tragedies by the French Jesuit professor and playwright Pierre Mousson (c. 1560–1637) inspired by four great figures from the classical world.
The four plays collected here are: Pompeius Magnus, on the Roman general and statesman Pompey the Great, ally and then enemy of Julius Caesar; Croesus liberatus, on the king of Lydia, famed for his wealth and for his defeat at the hands of the Persian king Cyrus the Great; Cyrus punitus, on Cyrus himself, founder of the Persian empire; and Darius proditus, on Darius III, the Persian king overthrown by Alexander the Great.
Mousson was born in Verdun and taught grammar and rhetoric at Pont-à-Mousson, Dole, La Flèche, and Orléans, where he died. His preface here, addressed ‘to my actors’, refers to other unpublished plays from his pen, performed at Pont-à-Mousson and La Flèche. The work is printed in the small town of La Flèche, situated halfway between Le Mans and Angers, home to the the Collège Henri-IV, a celebrated Jesuit school founded in 1603 by Henry IV, attended by Descartes and Hume, among various other famous alumni.
Sommervogel V, 1473; USTC 6804590. Only two copies traced in the UK (BL, Trinity College Cambridge); seven copies recorded in the US.
