Toussaint du Bray

First edition. Rather rare. One copy at the BNF, one at Tours. Cioranescu only mentions Les Chroniques historiques by Boitel.
Contemporary full parchment binding with overlapping flaps. Unlettered spine.
Historian, poet and polemicist of the first half of the 17th century, very little is known about this figure, he wrote le théâtre du malheur, collecting various accidents that occurred in the lives of illustrious figures, chroniques historiques, and a history of France from 1610 to 1620. This work is a historical collection divided into 3 parts, the first relating the stratagems of figures from Antiquity, the second, inventions, and the last, subtleties. One finds therein a wealth of rare information about scholars of Antiquity and historical figures. The whole is related in a style reminiscent of Plutarch.

New edition after the first published in 1614. Rare. Printed in italics.
Contemporary full vellum binding. Smooth unlettered spine. One tear with loss of 1cm² to spine. Lower right corner (1cm) burned on first 30 leaves sometimes affecting a blackened letter. Pale dampstaining to p. 240 lower right corner affecting part of the text. Front board held only by a few loose stitches.
Important collection of contemporary poetry for the French language bringing together Duperron, Malherbe, Racan, Meziriac, Monfuron, Touvant, Motin, La Picardière, Maynard, Hodey, Le Breton, Brun, D'urfé... The work gathers numerous poems by author. According to the notice to the reader, this collection is an abridgment of two collections published previously: "Les délices de la poésie françoise" (1618) and "Le second livre des délices de la poésie françoise" (1620) by Jean Baudoin, expanded with 112 new pieces.

Second edition, the first edition having appeared the previous year.
Contemporary limp vellum binding, unlettered spine. One tear to the vellum at foot, the sewing is somewhat loose. At the end of the work, 10 pages folded at the corner.
The book consists of a political tableau of Europe under Louis XIII tempered with examples borrowed from antiquity (one notices a curious table of contents). The author establishes therein the portrait of a prince endowed with all the qualities of the 17th-century honest man, whom some will designate as being a flattering portrait of Louis XIII. The work is reputed remarkable for the clarity of its language and the perfection of its eloquence. Tchemerzine, I, 359. The work was censored 3 years after its publication by the Sorbonne.
'This edition has undergone the cuts indicated by the faculty of the Sorbonne'. Brunet, I, 631