BOYSSIERES Jean de Les Oeuvres sainctes.

Not in any of the consulted standard bibliographies (Adams, BM, BnF, Hollis, worldcat, USTC, etc.).

First edition, of great rarity. 

The catalogue of the Barbier-Müller Collection indicates only 3 titles by this author from the town of Clermont-Ferrand : Premières œuvres amoureuses (Paris, Montreuil & Tabert, 1578), Les Secondes œuvres poétiques (Paris, Poupy, 1578), and Arioste (Lyon, Ancelin, 1580). The last volume of the trilogy, Troisièmes œuvres (Lyon, Ancelin, 1579) is only shortly described and is not present at the Barbier-Müller Collection.

Little is known about the life of Jean de Boyssières, but the Barbier-Müller catalogue (IV:1, no. 50-52) gives very precise indications. “Jean de Boyssières or de Boissières (he preferred the first spelling, but the spelling is also known as ‘Boessieres’) was born in Clermont-Ferrand in February 1555. He was the son of Guillaume de Boyssières and Michelle de Loys. He himself tells us the exact date of his birth. In the same way, he did not let us ignore the fact that he served the Duke of Anjou, brother of Henri III, pompously celebrated in several occasional pieces which, with a commendable concern for variety, alternate with love poems to a certain Sylvie. He was a soldier and certainly took part in military operations under the orders of Monsieur” (see Barbier-Müller catalogue). Barbier-Müller notes that “1582 saw the poet take the turn of Christian poetry, with Les Oeuvres spirituelles. According to Grente, our poet died in 1584, but Barbier-Müller does not know his date of death. After taking part in the capture of Issoire, a “Protestant stronghold that fell on 12 June 1577, the soldier-poet dedicated several pieces to this feat of arms…. After a trip to Piedmont in 1580, he seems to have settled in Lyon for a while, entrusting his works to the printer Thibaud Ancelin” (Barbier-Müller, Mignonne allons voir, no. 71).

The work opens with a title printed within a en engraved woodcut border, followed by an elegy to the archbishop of Lyon. This is followed by odes and sonnets by de Boissières, Ancelin and Corrier. The introduction to the teaching on the preparation required before prayer is followed by the main body of the work, which includes :es prières pour dire chacun jour ; Les Prières pour recevoir le saint sacrement ; Prières diverses ; Cantiques ; Sonets à Dieu ; Sonets à la vierge Marie ; Dix psalmes de David ; Histoire de Susanne ; La Passion de Jésus Christ. 

The last blank page of the final notebook contains a handwritten sonnet of 3 stanzas (quatrains) entitled: Sur l’âme convertie du pöete de Boyssières. It is signed with the initials BD followed by the date 1584. We have been unable to identify the name of the author behind these initials.

A very fine copy of this extremely rare edition.