Jacques GRÉVIN. L'Olimpe... Ensemble les autres euvres Poëtiques dudict Auteur. In-8, ivy-green morocco, triple fillet, 5-nerved spine nicely decorated, inner lace, gilt edges (Bauzonnet). De Backer, 340 // Tchemerzine-Scheler, III-495. (8 f.)-216 / A-O8, P4 / 99 x 165 mm. First edition of Jacques Grévin's rarest work. Born in Clermont en Beauvaisis in 1538, Jacques Grévin studied medicine in Paris. He befriended Ronsard, who admired him, but Grévin, a Calvinist, sided with his co-religionists in the quarrel that pitted the Protestant ministers of Geneva against Ronsard, and so religion separated them. Attached to Marguerite de France, daughter of François I and Duchess of Savoy, he followed her to the court of Turin as physician, adviser and superintendent of finance. He died there in 1570 at the age of thirty-one. A playwright, he also composed love poetry, notably for a young woman he named Olympe, generally identified as Nicole Estienne, niece of Robert Estienne and later wife of the doctor Jean Liébault. L'Olimpe is without doubt the Grévin's most sought-after work. A superb copy despite a slight discoloration at the edge of one plate. Provenance: A. Veissant (bookplate, 20 December 1855, no. 496), Baron Sosthène de La Roche Lacarelle (bookplate, 30 April-5 May 1888, no. 208) and Henri Bordes (bookplate).