[BODIN (Jean)]. OPPIAN OF SYRIA. De venatione libri IIII Joan. Bodino Andevagensi interprete. Paris, Michel de Vascosan, 1555. Small in-4, red morocco, gilt fillet in border, smooth threaded spine, gilt inner torsade, gilt edges (Binding of the late eighteenth century). Rare first edition of Jean Bodin's translation and commentary on the Cynégétiques, a famous didactic poem on hunting attributed to Oppien of Apamea, also known as Oppien of Syria, a Hellenistic poet of the early 3rd century AD. His poem is divided into four cantos: the first describes the ideal hunter, equipment, dogs and horses; the second and third cantos are devoted to game (bison, mouflon, oryx, etc.) and exotic animals (lion and panther, giraffe, camel, ostrich, etc.); finally, the fourth canto, which has not survived in its entirety, deals with hunting techniques, nets, weapons and so on. The editio princeps of Oppian's Cynégétiques, in Greek, was published by Aldus in 1517, together with the Halieutiques, a treatise on fishing now attributed to another Oppian, known as de Corycos. Michel de Vascosan had republished the Greek text of the Cynégétiques in 1549 and Adrien Turnèbe published it with another Latin translation in 1555. This translation with commentary is the first published work by Jean Bodin (1530-1596), the author of the Six livres de la République (1576) and the Démonomanie des sorciers (1580), who was twenty-five at the time. It is dedicated to Gabriel Bouvery, Bishop of Angers, and contains extracts from Athenaeus, Eusebius and the Souda relating to the life of Oppian. This "very rare edition, with a very fine typography" (Thiébaud) was printed on the presses of Michel de Vascosan, Josse Bade's son-in-law and successor, in italics, with numerous passages in Greek in the notes by Jean Bodin, which take up more than half the volume. A copy of Boniface Avignon, of Arles, with his handwritten bookplate at the end of the text (f. 110). This eminent 16th-century jurisconsult from Arles published Conventions entre Charles I et Louys II, anciens contes de Provence, et les citoyens de la ville d'Arles in 1582. A very fine copy bound in red morocco at the end of the eighteenth century. Spine slightly faded; tear repaired in the margin of f. 1. Crahay-Isaac-Lenger, L1a - Thiébaud, 695 - Souhart, 358 - Schwerdt, II, 50 - Brunet, IV, 195 - Adams, O-205.