Las Obros de Pierre Goudelin, augmentados d’uno noubélo Floureto.
Toulouse: Pierre Bosc, 1648 [1647]. First edition. Two parts in one volume (Part 2 with separate title-page dated 1647, and separate pagination and signatures). Title-pages with woodcut vignette; decorative initials and headpieces throughout. Later vellum, with morocco lettering-piece to spine and simple decorative gilt rolls at head and foot. [16] 213 [1]; 104 [69 (Dictionnaire)]. In this copy, the Dictionnaire is bound after the second part, at the end. Contemporary possessor’s inscription in ink to the first title-page. Binding somewhat soiled and slightly warped, with light creasing and surface marks; small imperfections along edges; overall stable and sound. Text block solid; paper generally toned, with a light dampstain affecting part of the volume, most visible to the lower margins of the title and adjacent leaves, occasionally extending into subsequent gatherings. Otherwise in very good condition.
First complete edition, issued with the “Dictionnaire” and published during the author’s lifetime.
The 1648 Toulouse edition is the first to gather Goudelin’s works in complete form and the last issued during his lifetime. It presents the Ramelet Moundi, his principal poetic collection in the Occitan language, together with the appended Dictionnaire, an early lexicographical attempt to codify the local language.
Goudelin (1580–1649), born and active in Toulouse, was one of the most prominent and inventive poets writing in Occitan, working specifically in the Toulouse dialect. His career developed within a local literary milieu shaped by the aftermath of the Wars of Religion and by the cultural life of the city; he became widely regarded among his contemporaries as the leading poetic voice of the region, notable for his ability to move across different linguistic registers and literary forms.
His verse, written in the vernacular, combines courtly occasional poetry, satirical and festive forms, and compositions for civic and aristocratic entertainments. The present edition reflects that range: odes, stances, and songs are interspersed with texts linked to court festivals and public celebrations, including stanzas in honour of Henri IV. At its core stands the Ramelet Moundi (“Toulousain Bouquet”), a wide-ranging collection comprising sonnets, chants royaux, drinking songs, odes, carnivalesque prologues, pastoral dialogues, love songs, and Christmas carols.
The work concludes with the substantial Dictionnaire, devoted to the vocabulary of the Toulouse dialect, with particular attention to words most distant from French and their explanations. Its inclusion reinforces the linguistic dimension of Goudelin’s project, situating the volume within a broader effort to elevate and stabilize regional expression at a moment when linguistic centralization was increasingly promoted in France.
Goudelin’s writings circulated widely during his lifetime and continued to be reprinted throughout the seventeenth century; elements of his work are known to have influenced both Molière and Cyrano de Bergerac.
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Price: €3,200.00