First edition - Lot 318

First edition Du BARTAS (Guillaume de Saluste) La Sepmaine ou Création du Monde. Paris, Feurier, 1578. In-4: 2f., 224pp. Text ruled. Washed copy. Later black morocco, ribbed spine, between-nerves framed in fawn morocco and repeated central figure of Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller, triple gilt fillet framing a central medallion with the arms of Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller, brown silk endpapers, protective sheathed case. Very rare type B first edition of this biblically-inspired, encyclopedic poem in seven songs. The extraordinary success of this collection, as well as Tasso's admiration, contributed to the poem's wide European distribution. According to Isabelle Plantin's article in the Bulletin du Bibliophile, there are currently only 2 type B copies in existence. The differences in presentation are numerous, but the easiest to spot is that in Type A, the verso of the 2nd leaf [Au Lecteur] is occupied by errors that occurred during printing, whereas in Type B this verso is occupied by a sonnet signed with the initials J. D. CH., designating the physician and poet Joseph du Chesne. After Bernard du POEY's Ode du Gave [1551] and BELLEFOREST's La Pyrénée [1571], the third poetic text dedicated to the Pyrenees is found in the "Troisième jour" of the Semaine. The success of this work was such that, until the author's death in 1590, editions followed one another without interruption. Copies of first editions from the 16th century are rare (Labarère 498). Provenance: A copy from the library of Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller, with his gilded bookplate on leather and his coat of arms gilded on the boards. The poetic library of Geneva bibliophile Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller is considered a benchmark in its field! An exceptional person, bibliophile since the age of 13, specialist in 16th-century French poetry and history, this great collector of art and antiquarian books (Ronsard, authors of the Pléiade), still has time to write the catalog of his collection of antiquarian books, beautifully entitled "Ma bibliothèque poétique". Since 1973, 7 folio volumes have been published by Droz. The latest ("the seventh volume of the catalog of the Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller collection, the fourth volume of the fourth part of Ma Bibliothèque poétique") is devoted to the discovery of seventeen poets, through forty-seven very detailed bibliographical notes: "The catalog presents, in very detailed notes, a meticulous description, page by page, of each of the works studied.