Ovide - (ILLUSTRATED MANUSCRIPT) Rondeaux sur les Métamorphoses d'Ovide dédiés à Monseigneur le Dauphin - 1600

Elegitur presents: Rondos on Ovid's Metamorphoses dedicated to the Dauphin

This refined manuscript, titled Rondeaux on the Metamorphoses of Ovid dedicated to Monseigneur the Dauphin, represents a valuable example of late 17th or early 18th-century French literature, inspired by the immortal work of Publius Ovidius Naso, Le Metamorphoses.

Physical description

The volume, small in size and bound in full marbled leather with a spine featuring raised bands and a black leather label bearing the inscription METAMORPHOSES, displays elegant gilding and signs of age consistent with a noble or private library object. The pages, handwritten with regular and ornate calligraphy, are accompanied by numerous finely crafted engravings illustrating episodes from Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Content

The manuscript contains a series of poetic rondeaux — short closed-form lyric compositions typical of Baroque French poetry — dedicated to the main Ovidian myths:
• Bacchus and grapes of raisin (Bacco transformed into a bunch of grapes),
• Neptune and the goddess Ceres,
Iphimedia and Neptune
Neptune in Mouton
and other mythological episodes that combine a gallant tone with moral and allegorical symbolism.

The illustrations, created through etching, depict divine metamorphoses with a classic taste, accompanied by captions that interpret the myths in a moral or sentimental key, in line with the sensibility of the period.

Historical and cultural context

The work is set in the context of France's Grand Siècle, in a literary environment dominated by a taste for formal elegance and mythology reinterpreted in light of courtly morality. The dedication to Monseigneur the Dauphin suggests a connection with the court of Louis XIV, where mythological and allegorical poetry constituted an educated and refined genre, often aimed at the education or entertainment of princes.

The use of rondeaux — a poetic form dear to poets like Voiture, Benserade, and La Fontaine — reflects the desire to blend classical erudition with French grace, transforming Ovidian myths into small gems of wit and gallantry.

Value and uniqueness

This manuscript is distinguished by:
the calligraphic and artistic care of the transcription
the original illustrations with a late Baroque style
the noble dedication which enhances its historical value
and the rare combination of French poetry and Ovidian iconographic imagery.

Together, text and images constitute a valuable document of the literary and visual culture of the French court between the 17th and 18th centuries, reflecting the humanistic education and aesthetic taste of the era.

Collation and state of preservation

226 pages numbered, 22 pages unnumbered. Excellent preservation state, a few light water stains but overall a unique collectible piece of extreme rarity.