Description
Definitive first edition of Charron’s first work,
Preserved in its contemporary overlapping vellum,
the preferable condition for French 16th century first editions.
Charron. Les trois véritez. Seconde édition revue, corrigée, & de beaucoup augmentée.
Bourdeaus, S. Millanges, 1595.
8vo [162 x 101 mm] of (12) ll., 176 pp., (4) ll., 775 pp., (1) p.
Full contemporary vellum with overlapping edges, preserved ties, flat spine, 3 quires with foxing.
Contemporary binding.
Definitive first edition of Charron’s first work, the first to be acknowledged by the author and bearing his name.
This is a reviewed and enlarged edition, different from the previous two, one that was published in Bordeaux in 1593 and had 450 less pages and the other in Paris in 1594 and had 457 less pages.
Tchemerzine, II, 244 ; Brunet, I, 1809 ; Graesse, II, 123.
This edition is the first one mentioned by Brunet and Graesse and is, to the eyes of bibliophiles everywhere, the most important.
Dedicated to king Henri IV, this apology of Catholicism was published after the king’s conversion.
Pierre Charron (1541-1603) was the son of a Parisian bookseller. He became a priest and then a preacher with lots of followers ; it was while he was preaching in Bordeaux that he met Montaigne.
“Il vécut fort familièrement avec Messire Michel de Montaigne, chevalier de l’ordre du Roy, Autheur du livre intitulé les Essais, duquel il faisoit un merveilleux cas, et le sieur de Montaigne l’aimoit d’une affection réciproque, et avant que pourir, par son testament, il luy permit de porter après son decez les plaines armes de sa noble famille, parce qu’il ne laissoit aucuns enfans masles.”
This dogmatic text is a refutation of the Traité de l’Eglise or Traité de la véritable religion chrétienne by the Huguenot leader Duplessis-Mornay : the three truths are that there is only one God, only one religion (Christian) and only one Church (catholic).
With this work, Charron brought himself a lot of attention. The bishop of Cahors appointed Charron as the general vicar and theological chaplain of his church without knowing him personally, based solely on his book.
A copy preserved in its contemporary overlapping vellum, the preferable condition for French 16th century first editions.
