Remonstrances faictes au roy de France par Messieurs de la Court de Parlement de Paris, sur la publication de l’Edict du moys de Janvier. Tout Royaume divisé à lencontre de soymesme sera desolé. S Màtthieu. 12.
Cambray: Nicolas Lombard, [1561] (=1562). First(?) edition. Papered spine. ff. [14] [2 (blank)]. Sign.: A–D4 (D3–4 blank). / With contemporary underlines throughout and occasional marginal notes in ink. Upper outer corners stained and chipped throughout, first leaves with small loss. Closed tear on the title page, not affecting the text. Overall in very good condition.
A protest against the Edict of Toleration (also known as the Edict of January or Saint-Germain), which was issued by the French Crown on January 17, 1562, after a long series of repressive measures against the Protestant Huguenots, in order to restore peace in the kingdom torn by civil and religious dissensions.
The registration process of the edict led to the bitterest legislative struggles of the century between the Parlement and the Crown. After a vote on 7 February, the Parlement, very Catholic, refused to verify or publish the edict, and on 12 February a remonstrance, the present publication, was drawn up and sent to the Court. Eventually, the Parlement had to capitulate and the edict was registered on March 6, five days after the Massacre of Vassy which triggered the first of the series of eight civil wars lasting some thirsty-six years in France, the Wars of Religion.
The Edict of Tolerance remained a reference for the Huguenots in the later negotiations between them and the royal power and became the foundation of the subsequent toleration edicts, such as the Edict of Ambroise, the resolution of the first war in 1563, and the Edict of Nantes which marked the end of the period of the French Wars of Religion in 1598.
Seemingly two different editions (16- and 24-leaves) were published by Lombard in 1562. Due to their substantial similarities, the presence or lack of the last blank leaves, and the peculiar dating (“mil cinq cens soixante & un”) the bibliographies list these editions under at least six different entries, dated 1561 or 1562 (later editions, also by Lombard appeared in 1565 and 1566).
USTC 6319 (2 copies: Nîmes - Bibliothèque Carré d’art; Paris - Bibliothèque Mazarine) or 17432 (1 copy: La Rochelle- Bibliothèque municipale)
Literature: Keller, A.-C. (1952). Michel de l’Hospital and the Edict of Toleration of 1562. Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 14(2), 301–310. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20673598.
First edition of this scarce and important document of the French Wars of Religion.
Price: €2,000.00