BÉRENGER DE LA TOUR D’ALBENAS François L’Amie Rustique et autres vers divers. [Et :] L’Amie des Amies, imitation d’Arioste, divisée en quatre livres.

Baudrier, Bibliographie lyonnaise, II, pp. 57-59 ; Carter & Vervliet, Civilité Types, n° 8 ; Balsamo, Les Traductions de l’italien en français au XVIe siècle, 2009, p. 93.

First editions of these two poetic works, printed by Robert Granjon (1513–1590) in ‘civilité’ type.

These two works were published a year after the first use of the Lettre françoyse, or ‘civilité’ type – typefaces created by Robert Granjon – for a French translation of the Dialogue on Life and Death (1557).

« Vraisemblablement fils du libraire parisien Jean Granjon dont il reprend au début l’adresse et l’enseigne. S’établit à Paris en mars 1545. Fait à partir de 1547 de fréquents séjours à Lyon où plusieurs imprimeurs dont Jean I de Tournes lui achètent ses poinçons. Établi à Lyon de 1556 (peut-être dès 1551) à 1562. Gendre du peintre lyonnais Bernard Salomon. Créateur à Lyon des caractères dits de civilité ou “lettres françoises”, dont il obtient le privilège royal pour 10 ans en déc. 1557 » (BnF).

The two books by Bérenger de la Tour d’Albenas form a diptych: they both begin with a long love play and are followed by translations or imitations of Italian poets (Ariosto, Folengo).

L’Amie rustique is divided into four eglogues. The poem is followed by Songs, a Song of Virtue and Fortune, Funeral Songs, Epitaphs, an Epistle (in prose) to M. de Rochecolombe, and the Naséide, restored in its entirety, dedicated to ‘Alcofribas, Indien, roy de Nasée’.

L’Amie des Amies contains the episode of Isabelle and Zerbin, taken from the XXIVth canto of Ariosto’s Roland furieux, and set in French verse of ten syllables. Bérenger de La Tour has appended various poems, including the first book of the Moschéide, or the Combat des Mouches et des Fourmis, taken from the Moschea, a Macaronic poem by Folengo.

François Bérenger de La Tour d’Albenas (c. 1515 – c. 1559) was a lawyer and humanist poet, originally from Aubenas in Vivarais. He studied law and literature in Toulouse and Bordeaux. Although his work is little known to the general public, he was a prolific writer during the reigns of François I and Henri II, moving for a time in the circles of the Pléiade and influenced by the Lyon poetic movement, notably by figures such as Maurice Scève.

USTC has identified very few copies of each of the two titles outside France. L’Ami Rustique: 6 outside France, including just 1 in the United States (Germany: 1; the Netherlands: 1; the United Kingdom: 3; the United States: Houghton: 1).

L’Amie des Amies: only four outside France, including just one in the United States (London: 3; United States: Princeton: 1).

Fine copy, well established by Antoine Bauzonnet ; the date of th binding is given in red ink : 19 December 1838.

Provenance : baron Pichon (sale 1869, n°528 : « Très bel exemplaire provenant de la bibliothèque de l’abbé Barré, curé de Monville, près de Rouen » Last vicar in Rouen of Church Saint-Eloi, à Rouen, Barré became a bookseller in the harbour of that town) – R.-S. Turner (book plate, sale 1878, lot 294) – Étienne-Marie Bancel (book plate, sale 1882, lot 281) – Eugène-Gabriel Marigues de Champ-Repus (book plate, sale 1893) ; Gustave Herpin (sale 1903, lot 72) –  Marcel Bénard (sale 1925) – Abel Lefranc (sale 1954) – Marcel Lecomte (book plate); the copy described in the Rothschild catalogue (I, n°662) also bound in citron morcco, berars the name of both binders Trautz-Bauzonnet, but also belonged to R.-S. Turner.