Les OEuvres

This seventh edition of the Œuvres of Guez de Balzac brings together primarily his Lettres, whose first publication in 1624 had established their author as one of the great masters of French prose, in the form of discourses, portraits, and political and moral meditations.

Born in Angoulême in 1597, and close to the entourage of the Duc d’Épernon, Guez de Balzac stayed in Leiden and then in Rome, where he became familiar with the models of ancient and Italian eloquence. The publication of his Lettres was also at the center of fierce quarrels: Balzac was accused of bombast, vanity, imitation of the Ancients, and even libertinism. Father Jean Goulu, general of the Feuillants, attacked him under the name Phyllarque in two series of letters published in 1627 and 1628. This controversy, far from harming Balzac in the long run, confirmed the new standing he had come to occupy in the Republic of Letters.

The present edition notably reproduces the famous letter sent by Richelieu to Guez de Balzac on February 4, 1624, after reading his first collection. The future cardinal-minister praises his eloquence with a warmth that provided the author with political and literary endorsement of the highest order. This letter was soon placed at the head of subsequent editions, as one of the most prestigious testimonies to the reception of the Lettres.

Admitted in 1634 among the founding members of the Académie française, Guez de Balzac was to exert a profound influence on classical prose.

A fine copy of this important early edition, bound in blind-stamped morocco.
Old repaired corner loss to two leaves.

From the library of the poet Antoine Pol, with his bookplate (Millon, 2013, no. 2).