La sepmaine, ou creation du monde

New edition, the first with commentaries and notes by Pantaléon Thévenin. Printer's device on title page with the motto "En moy la mort, en moy la vie". On verso of the privilege, large arms of the Duke of Lorraine, to whom the work is dedicated (each day bears an epistle to a member of the house of Lorraine). Privilege dated October 24, 1584.
Each day is decorated with a title vignette (3.5 cm x 5 cm) and a genealogical table which precedes it and details everything the poem treats. A compass rose figure p. 171, another of the celestial map p. 220; one of climatic zones p. 281; one of the zodiac p. 367; two on eclipses p. 426 and 430. Text in beautiful italic type, the commentary which follows in roman. The original of Bartas's La Sepmaine appeared in 1578.
Full glazed blonde calf binding, 18th century. Raised spine decorated with small tools, roulette at foot. Chocolate morocco title label. Triple fillet frame on covers. Red edges. Frieze on leading edges and inside. Two cuts at head, with fragile headcap. Two corners slightly bumped. Small lacks at head of upper joints. One stain p. 67. Some leaves trimmed short. One dampstain from page 492 to page 506 at right corner, lower margin, resuming page 561 on several leaves. Another dampstain at bottom of page reaching the text slightly from page 714 to the end. Soiling in margins of title page. Numerous pagination errors: after p. 184, returns to 165 up to 186, then pagination jumps to 209 up to 216, then returns to 197. Pagination goes back to 204 up to 210, then resumes at 233. New error after page 561, which on verso jumps to 512 and continues to the end. All without lacks.
Important edition, as the genre of the poem calls for commentaries and erudition. The first week and the second are encyclopedic poems which follow the unfolding of Genesis and offer the reader the sum of knowledge of the world. Bartas's poetry had immense success in its time, perhaps because one also found in it a wealth of teachings on the Ancients, science, inventions. Goethe was a fervent admirer, it was less appreciated subsequently in France, which judged it good in its ideas but too unbridled for its taste. The Renaissance had much taste for paraphrase and the week which is already a form of paraphrase of Genesis is here in turn paraphrased, but this time by a scientific discourse which illuminates its implementation and the foundations of its writing, as much on astronomy, natural science, botany, mathematics, as the whole of knowledge which glorifies Man.