THOU (Jacques-Auguste de).

Parabata vinctus, sive triumphus christi, tragoedia. Paris, Mamert Patisson, 1595. In-8, fawn calf, boards decorated with gilded right-hand lace and a fleur-de-lis semé, small oval medallion in the center bearing the words collegium / marchianum, ornate spine with repetition of the fleur-de-lis semé in the caissons, marbled edges (17th-century binding). First edition of this tragedy, a verse imitation of Aeschylus' Prometheus in Chains. The humanist composed it after his recovery from the plague: "His illness came from the four-month stay he had made in the camp before Roüen, where the air corrupted by the length of the siege had caused the plague. In fact, after three days, the kind of coals that are the sure signs of this disease were seen around his kidneys, and we absolutely despaired of his recovery. [The coals dissipated, his strength recovered [...], and his health returned entirely some time later [...]. His first care after his recovery was to give God public tokens of his gratitude for all the graces he had received from His goodness; he brought to light a Latin poem [...] (Mémoires de la vie de Jacques-Auguste de Thou in, J.-A. de Thou, Histoire universelle..., I, 1734, p. 207). Prize binding from Collège de La Marche, with fleurdelisé decoration. A university institution founded around 1362 in the former premises of the Collège de Constantinople by Jean de La Marche and, after his death, by his nephew Guillaume, the Collège de La Marche was transferred in 1420 to the mountain of Sainte-Geneviève, sheltered from the floods of the Seine. The college had a great reputation (its students included Jean Calvin and Nicolas Malebranche) and survived until the French Revolution. Light foxing on the edges of a few leaves. Renouard, Estienne, p. 190. - Soleinne, I, 1843, n°227. - Diane Barbier-Mueller, Inventaire..., n°840.