BONEFONIUS. Johannis Bonefonii Arverni carmina. London (Londini), Ex officina Jacobi Tonson, & Johannis Watts, 1720. 12mo XI,(1 blank),75,(1 blank) p. 19th century half morocco 15 cm (Ref: IJsewijn p. 135; Graesse 1,486; ESTC T72206) (Details: Gilt short title on the back; title in red & black; woodcut printer's mark on the title, showing all kinds of symbols of wisdom and science) (Condition: Lacking the last 8 pages; wear to the extremities; upper margin partly and lightly waterstained) (Note: The French Neo-Latin poet Jean Bonefons, or Johannes Bonefonius in Latin, (Clermont/Auvergne, 1554-1614) is the last great poet of the 'first great age of French Neo-Latin poetry'. IJsewijn calls him a 'belated Petrarchan singer'; (IJsewijn p. 135). Of the poets who followed the footsteps of the Dutch erotic poet Janus Secundus, he was one of the best known. They are often found together in later editions of erotic poetry, often together with the juvenile poems of Muretus and Beza. The collection of Bonefons's carmina is preceded by a laudatory poem of the French genius Josephus Justus Scaliger, 1540-1609. Then follows the erotic 'Basiorum liber', or 'Pancharis', a work Bonefonius wrote before his marriage. The Basia are followed by a poem on the city of Dijon, the 'Tumultus Gallicus' and a collection of occasional poems. In the preface of this edition it is stated, that it follows the Leyden edition 'minime aspernandam' of 1659. The London publishers Tonson & Watts want, they say, to imitate the elegant editions of the Elzeviers. 'Elzevirianarum elegantiam voluimus imitari'. At the end of the carmina are unfortunately lacking the last 8 pages of the last gathering. These pages consist of a short biography of 3 pages, in French, of Jean Bonefons, and a priggish list of 3 pages, with peccadilles, where an anynomous is splitting hairs on Bonefons's sins against pure latinity. The forelast page has a stocklist of J. Tonson. Perhaps the owner found these pages superfluous, and left them out, taking to heart the advice of Tonson & Watts, when they write in the preface (p. IV): 'ad calcem' ... 'ibi quaedam notantur loca in quibus ab illo contra Latini sermonis aut carminis leges peccatum est; sed animadversiones illas maluimus discutiendas proponere lectoris judicio, quam nostrum pronuniciare')(Collation: A-G6, H6 (minus H3-6)) (Photographs on request)
Book number: 120213 Euro 90.00

Keywords: (Oude Druk), (Rare Books), Bonefons, Bonefontius, Dichtkunst, Neolatin poetry, Neulatein. Bonnefons, neulateinische Poesie