Les VII Psalmes de la pénitence de David. Traduicts de l'italien de P. l'Arétin par François de Rosset

The rare first edition of this new French translation by François de Rosset, the work having previously been translated in 1540 by Vauzelles.
Eighteenth-century full citron morocco binding. Smooth spine decorated à la grotesque, red morocco title label. Wide gilt dentelle framing the boards. Gilt dentelle framing the cream paper pastedowns with gilt stars. All edges gilt. Two corners very slightly bumped, otherwise a very fine copy.
Aretino's translation is not actually a translation but rather a paraphrase, with reformulations that are amplified or conversely minimized, Aretino emphasizing certain scenes or feelings or conversely diminishing their intensity. Furthermore, it is indeed a manifest interpretation of the meaning of the psalms and a dramatic staging of them, Aretino seeking to demonstrate his main thesis of correspondence between divine mercy and the efficacy of penitence; he thus transforms diverse texts into a continuous unity by creating a narrator who speaks of David in the third person, and who allows him not only to give commentary but to frame the first-person text of the psalms: it is a form of literary recreation.