DU BELLAY Joachim La Monomachie de David et de Goliath. Ensemble plusieurs autres oeuvres poétiques.

Tchemerzine-Scheler, III, 71b ; see Adams, D-990 (only for the edition 1561).

Du Bellay’s last collection of poems, of which the author said: “I am willing to give our language a few more of my works, which will be (I think) the last fruits of our garden, not at all as tasty as the first, but (perhaps) better preserved.”

A rare edition, published posthumously by Frédéric Morel, in which all the poems from the 1552 edition are reproduced, with the exception of Adieu aux Muses, but in a different order, and with the addition of three new poems: La nouvelle maniere de faire son profit des lettres, Le poete courtisan and A Phoebus. This edition probably represents the author’s last wishes. Published only a few months after his death, it could not fail to be influenced by the instructions of the poet himself who, on his return from Rome, was planning a new edition of his entire work.

Extremely rare in private hands, it is missing from the Bonna and Barbier collections, and no copy has been listed in public sales for over a century.

Good copy, washed.