Songs - Béarn - Lot 524

Songs - Béarn RIVARÈS (Frédéric) Chansons et Airs Populaires du Béarn. Pau, E. Vignancour, sd. (1844). Large in-8: XXIV, 28f. music lithographed recto verso, 152pp. ; lithographed frontispiece by Deveria. Minor scattered spotting at the very beginning of the work, then quite white paper. Contemporary black chagrin, chocolate-brown spine with black box scrolls, gilt title and gilt fillets, double cold scroll alternating with gilt fillets framing the boards, triple gilt fillet inside, gilt edges. A good copy. Provenance: Copy from the library of Monseigneur le Duc de Nemours (printed bookplate) cf Sale Caillau-Lamicq (Paris, Drouot, 2004 - n°207). First edition reissued in 1868 without frontispiece. Original text in Béarnais, translation in French and notated music. An excellent work. Rivarès was a banker who lived in the Château d'Astis. Also included: NAVARROT (Jean François Xavier) : Chansons, published by V. LESPY. Pau, Véronèse, 1868. In-12: XXXII, 324pp. ½ period brown basane, gilt title and fillets on lightened smooth spine, rubbing to corners. Includes songs from Bearn (without translation) and French songs. LESPY based this edition on a manuscript by M. MICHEL, who conscientiously collected the poems that the chansonnier scattered to the winds. "Anything that was unimaginative, a debauchery of spirit, was excluded". Lespy goes on to justify his inquisition by pointing out that Navarrot had authorized him to keep only what he considered worthy of publication. Born in Oloron in February 1799, NAVARROT studied in Pau, then Toulouse and finally Paris, where, after studying law, he took up medicine, all without much conviction, more occupied with teasing the muse in the style of the illustrious Béranger, who was to become his friend. Before 1830, when he returned to Oloron, he wrote "le Bonhomme Popule" with his friend Alexandre Lagarde on the faculty benches (published by Véronèse in 1836). Finally, having obtained only a diploma of "doctor for laughs", he returned to Oloron and devoted himself exclusively to poetry, having chosen to live in that "joyful mediocrity" proper to poets. Navarrot died in 1862. Michel Camelat published this poet's "Obres" in 1924. Original edition reissued in 1868 without the frontispiece. Original text in Béarnais, translation into French and notated music. An excellent work. RIVARÈS was a banker who lived in the Château d'Astis.