Metamorphoses d'Ovide: En Rondeaux Imprimez et Enrichis de Figures Par Ordre De Sa Majesté, Et dediez å Monseigneur Le Dauphin.

Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1676. BENSERADE, Isaac de. . Metamorphoses d'Ovide. En Rondeaux Imprimez et Enrichis de Figures Par Ordre De Sa Majesté, Et dediez å Monseigneur Le Dauphin. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1676.

First Edition of this illustrated edition. Quarto (10 7/8 x 8 inches; 277 x 200 mm). [14], 463, [1, blank], [8, table] pp. With engraved frontispiece title-page by Sébastian Le Clerc after Charles Le Brun. Engraved royal arms on the title-page, two cherub vignettes and 226 engraved illustrations by Le Clerc, Chauveau and Le Pautre. These illustrations are considered to be some of the finest work of Chauveau and Le Clerc.

Contemporary mottled calf. Boards ruled in gilt. Spine with black morocco spine label, lettered in gilt. Spine stamped in gilt. Gilt dentelles and board edges. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Outer hinges starting and a bit rubbed, but still strong. Board edges a bit bumped and rubbed. Some toning and mild staining throughout. Occasional worming to lower margin, mainly to signatures 3G-3I, not affecting text. Over all a very nice copy.

Issac de Benserade was an important poet in the court of Louis XIV and was the librettist for the composer Lully. His translation of Métamorphoses d'Ovid in the form of a rondeaux was considered a failure and negatively affected his reputation. "Benserade wrote rondeaus upon Ovid some of which are reckoned tolerable but upon the whole the attempt was too absurd for serious approbation and his Ovid without occasioning any controversy dropt into oblivion almost as soon as it was published, although it appeared in a highly ornamented 4to printed at Paris 1676 with engravings to the expence [sic] of which the king contributed 10,000 livres." (The General Biographical Dictionary, Chalmers).

HBS 66663.

$3,000.