Copy of Ronsard’s Les Hymnes, a first edition of the first and second books, 1555 and 1556 - estimate €50,000-70,000 at Christie's Paris on March 23. Image copyright: Christie’s Images Limited.
Billed as the most comprehensive collection on French poets from the second half of the 16th century and formed around the works of Pierre de Ronsard and other members of the French Renaissance group known as La Pléiade, the collection has been assembled over half a century and today numbers around 800 books.
Among the works on offer in this first sale, which features nearly 130 works from the collection, will be this copy of Ronsard’s Les Hymnes – a first edition of the first and second books, 1555 and 1556, in a gilded and decorated and vellum binding from the period.
Estimate €50,000-70,000.
