MATTHIEU, Pierre. - Les Trois Parties des Tablettes de la vie et de la mort. Partie première - [partie troisième] - A Troyes, & ce vendent à Lyon, chez Vincent de Cœurffilly, 1630 - 3 parts bound in one oblong (103 X 51 mm.) in-32 volume of (2) ff, (100) pp. for the first part; (2) ff., (100) pp. for the second part; (4) ff., (100) pp. for the third part; marbled havana basane, spine with two ornate nerves, tawny title page (Binding of the period). A very rare "pocket" edition from Troy on the life and death of the poet and royal historiographer Pierre Matthieu (1563-1621). It is decorated with 2 engraved titles (first and second parts), the text printed in a typographical frame. First published between 1606 and 1622, the three hundred quatrains that make up Matthew's Tablets in Three Parts remain of great historical, religious and aesthetic interest to this day. An important witness to changing attitudes to death in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Matthew's verses also reflect a kind of ecumenical Christianity, in which the author, a former sympathiser of the Catholic League rallied to Henry IV, sought to find common ground between Catholicism and Protestantism. No other copies of this edition from Troy have been located in French or international public libraries. Binding from the period with a few wear defects at the upper head, jaws cracked, corners slightly dulled, margins sometimes a little short at the foot, small but not serious galling.