[RACINE] JODELLE (Étienne) (1532-1573)

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Lot n° 49
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[RACINE] JODELLE (Étienne) (1532-1573)
The works and poetic meslanges. Reveues & augmentees en cette derniere édition. Paris, Robert Le Fizelier, 1583. In-12 (134 x 70 mm), (12)-294 (i.e. 298) ff. and 2 blank ff. Copy complete with the last 10 numbered leaves which are sometimes missing, and the last two blank leaves. Second Empire blue chagrin, spine ribbed and decorated, gilt filleting on the boards, corner fleurons, filleting on the edges and back covers, gilt edges, later blue half-chagrin folder and lined case. (Upper right corner of the title scratched with damage to the last two letters of the word "Œuvres", date partially scratched, hence the error in the date on the back of the folder, 1573 instead of 1583, small tear without missing on folio 106). Second edition of Jodelle's works. This edition, shared between Robert Le Fizelier and Nicolas Chesneau associated with Mamert Patisson, contains 238 pieces, of which one is unpublished: "Its particular interest lies in the presence, at the end of the volume, of the 'Vers funèbres' dedicated to the memory of Jodelle by Agrippa d'Aubigné and published in booklet form after the death of the latter [Paris, Lucas Breyer, 1574]." (Barbier-Müller). It contains Jodelle's theater, notably Cleopatra Captive, the first tragedy in the antique style written in French, performed in Paris in February 1553 before Henri II. Precious copy from the library of Jean Racine, signed "Racine" in ink on the title. The history of the "Racine" signatures on the copies of the library of Jean Racine is very complex. They can be attributed to three different hands: some are by the great playwright himself, others were affixed later by his sons Jean-Baptiste and Louis after they had inherited it, sometimes imitating their father's. Here, it is difficult to say whether the signature is autograph or not. The paper having drunk the ink, it is difficult to examine the handwriting, in particular the layout of the capital R which is a key element of Jean Racine's signature. Nevertheless, this copy is well mentioned in the census of the books of his library by Paul Bonnefon. This copy is a good example of the relationship between the "first French tragedian" and the greatest tragedian of the classical age. PROVENANCE Jean Racine (cf. Paul Bonnefon, " La bibliothèque de Racine ", Revue d'Histoire littéraire de la France, 5e année, 1898, pp. 169-219, n° LII); Dr. Lucien-Graux (bookplate; sale of March 20-21, 1958, part 6, n° 141); Charles Vander Elst (bookplate). REFERENCES Barbier-Mueller III, no. 69; Tchemerzine III, 760 a; Renouard 184:5; Adams J-224; Thiébaud 520; Brunet III, 549; Ernest Jovy, Etudes raciniennes. La Bibliothèque des Racine, Jean, Jean-Baptiste et Louis Racine, Paris 1933, pp. 9-10, part of the Bulletin du Bibliophile, 1932, pp. 558-559; Paul Bonnefon, " La bibliothèque de Racine ", Revue d'Histoire littéraire de la France, 1898.
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