Les Amours de Diane et d'Endimion, tragédie. A Paris, chez Guillaume de Luyne, 1657. RELIÉ AVEC (à la suite): 2). (du même). Les Amours d'Angélique et de Médor. Tragi-comédie. A Paris, chez Guillaume de Luyne, 1664. 3). (du même). Les Amours d'Ovide. Pastorale héroïque. A Paris, chez Estienne Loyson, 1663. 4). (du même). Les intrigues amoureuses, comédie. A Paris, chez Gabriel Quinet, 1667. 5). (du même). L'Art de Plaire. A Paris, chez Guillaume de Luyne, 1655. 6). (du même). Poème à la Sérénissime Reyne de Suède. Fait en l'an 1651. A Paris, chez Guillaume de Luyne, 1655.

Collection of 6 works in volume, 12mo. 1). Engraved frontispiece. 4 leaves. 98 pages. (1 blank leaf). 2). 6 leaves. 71 pages. 3). 3 leaves. 112 pages. (interversion of sheets). 4). 2 leaves. 108 pages. 5). 4 leaves. 47 pages. 6). 2 leaves. 44 pages. Full speckled brown calf, ornate ribbed spine (contemporary binding). Valuable collection of four plays and two gatherings of poetry by Parisian playwright Gabriel Gilbert (1610-1680), contemporarily bound together in a single volume. They are all first editions, none of them having been published in a first edition in quarto format, as was often the case with theatrical works. The man who served as secretary to the Duchess of Rohan, and later to Queen Christine of Sweden, was also the author of a number of tragedies, some of which enjoyed some success. Although almost forgotten today, scholars such as Soleinne have noted that he exerted a notable influence on the authors of his time, including the most illustrious such as Racine and Corneille. A faithful observer of Aristotle's precepts, and one of the first to write for the theater with correctness and French regularity, Gilbert was, in this respect at least, Racine's precursor (see Larousse). The first play in the collection ("Les Amours de Diane et d'Endimion"), with its engraved frontispiece, was written in Rome, where the author had followed Queen Christine. It is a kind of "tragi-comedy in the manner of Molière's Psyché", which the queen had commissioned from her secretary to evoke, in a thinly veiled way, her love affair with Cardinal Decio Azzolino (1623-1689). The two poetry opuscules ("L'Art de Plaire" and "Poème à la Reyne de Suède") are also both dedicated to the Queen. A fine copy bearing an 18th-century armorial bookplate that we have been unable to identify (the owner's name has been scratched off), a handwritten note on Gilbert at the end of the volume, taken fromthe 1775 "Anecdotes Dramatiques" and from Sabathier, as well as a purchase note from another hand stating "Lyon 23 floréal II - 10 sols ce vol. relié". Soleinne, 1191: "Gilbert, écrivain très estimable, a malheureusement été eclipsé par les poëtes dramatiques du premier ordre, qui ne dédaignèrent pas de l'imiter. (…) (il) fut mis à contribution par tous ses rivaux contemporains".