MARINO Giovanni Battista L’Adone, poemata con gli argomenti del conte Fortunanio Sanvitale et l’allegarie di don Lorenzo Scoto.

Guigard, I, 309.

First issue of this beautiful edition. The only edition decorated with the beautiful title engraved on copper by Francesco Valesio (1560-ca. 1643), painter and engraver, active in Venice from 1597 to 1643. Magnificent copy in a binding attributable to Le Gascon, made for Jean-Baptiste Le Goux de La Berchère.

This Baroque poem was written during the stay in Paris of the poet Giovanni Battista Marino, known as Cavalier Marino (1569-1625), who was taken under the wing of Marie de Medici. With nearly 41,000 verses spread over twenty cantos, L’Adone is one of the longest poems in Italian literature (almost three times the length of The Divine Comedy).

The evocation of the loves of the goddess Venus and the beautiful Adonis gives rise to numerous descriptions, digressions and adventures far removed from the original myth, all in a highly refined style designed to fill the reader with wonder, which, according to Marino, is the purpose of poetry.

While it is one of the longest poems in Italian literature, it is also one of the most controversial. It was condemned by Pope Urban VIII in 1624 and placed on the Index in 1627 because of its lascivious scenes and the mixing of the sacred and the profane. However, it continued to be widely read in Italy throughout the 17th century.

This edition is dedicated to the Queen of France, Marie de Medici, with a dedication dated 30 June 1623.

“Très jeune, il manifeste une invincible répugnance pour le droit auquel son père le destinait et un penchant non moins invincible pour les femmes, les dettes et la poésie. D’emblée il plaît : sa poésie sur le baiser et ses diverses variétés fait fureur à Naples où il devient secrétaire du prince de la Conca et se lie avec le Tasse qui reconnaît son talent. De 1600 à 1605, on le voit à Rome au service du cardinal Aldobrandini, puis à Turin à la cour de Charles-Emmanuel Ier où il est victime d’un attentat dirigé contre lui par un homme de lettres qu’il avait ridiculisé dans ses satires.

Sur l’invitation de Marie de Médicis, il passe en France en 1615. Il y séjournera huit ans et sera assez habile pour rester en grâce après l’assassinat de son protecteur, le maréchal d’Ancre, et l’exil de Marie de Médicis. Il réussira même à faire doubler sa pension par le roi. « Sono ricco come un asino » (« Je suis riche à crever »), écrit-il à un des innombrables amis qu’il a gardés en Italie. Il semble en effet qu’il n’ait plus rien à envier. Comblé d’honneurs et de biens, son œuvre majeure, L’Adonis, vient de paraître avec une préface de Chapelain, et il est la coqueluche de cet hôtel de Rambouillet où précieux et précieuses – parmi lesquels Saint-Amant, Maleville, Voiture – marinisent comme on pétrarquisait. En 1623, il rentre dans son pays natal en triomphe et se retire à Naples pour y mourir deux ans après, en pleine apothéose” (universalis.fr).

The engraved title shows Adonis seated in the centre, with a dog on his left and the boar that will mortally wound him emerging from the woods on his right. The whole scene is surrounded by cherubs and flowers, with a landscape in the background.

Provenance: The binding was most likely made for Jean-Baptiste Le Goux de La Berchère (1568-1631), first president of the Parliament of Dijon. It can be attributed to the workshop of Le Gascon (see Esmérian, II, Appendix A. I: Le Gascon), decorated with a very pretty fan-shaped iron in the decoration, which is perfectly executed. The work passed into the library of his son, Pierre, then his grandson, Charles Le Goux de La Berchère (1647-1719), who was successively Archbishop of Aix, Albi and then Narbonne in 1703. The latter owned ‘one of the most important libraries of the time, covering all branches of human knowledge, which he bequeathed to the Jesuits; however, part of it passed to his successor on the seat of Narbonne, Mgr de Bauveau’ (OHR, pl. 2334). Part of his library is preserved in Toulouse.

A magnificent copy.