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A close friend of Montaigne on morality: into the breath for freedom of thought!

CHARRON, Pierre.
De la sagesse, trois livres.

With engraved allegorical frontispiece.

With engraved allegorical frontispiece.



Leiden, Jean Elzevier, ca. 1659. 12mo. 19th century green morocco, ribbed spine with title and imprint lettered in gold, gilt binding edges and inner dentelles, g.e., marbled endpapers. With engraved allegorical frontispiece. (24), 1-264, 295-366, 377-621, (12), (3 lvs. blank).

Third and probably most rare of the four of the Elzevier editions of this remarkable and interesting French philosophical work by Pierre Charron (1541-1603), the famous minister of Bordeaux - where he was a close friend of Montaigne - and Cahors and later of queen Marguerite. The Elzeviers published the book for the first time in 1646 in Leiden (Willems 601); the second appeared, also by Jean, in 1656. This third edition is a page-for-page reprint of the 1656 edition including the mistakes in the pagination (jumping from 264 to 295 and from 366 to 377), but with a new frontispiece and a new dedication to the "Messieurs du Conseil de la cour provinciale d'Hollande". Some collectors prefer this edition because of its rarity. A fourth edition appeared in 1662.

The 1601 (and subsequent) Elzevier edition was based on the original edition of this most important work by Charron: Bordeaux, Millanges, 1601, without the later corrections and additions Charron made to prevent the Catholic censorship. The many heterodox passages and defences of freedom of thinking caused as many severe attacks, but didn't bother the protestant publishers in Leiden. The work is a complete account of the concept 'Morale' and ethics, written with a violent feeling of freedom of thought and veracity in the spirit of his friend Montaigne, being also a trailblazer for Holbach and Rousseau.

Very good, elegantly bound copy with the bookplate of Isaac Currie.
Willems 843; Copinger 887; Luchet, Analyse raisonnée de la sagesse de Charron (1763); Nouv. biogr. Gén. 10, cols. 15-8.

Related Subjects: 16th Century  17th Century  Elzevier  France  French  Philosophy 

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