[COEFFETEAU, NICOLAS (1574-1623)]. Tableau de L'innocence, et des graces de la bien-heureuse Vierge Marie Mere de dieu, Reine des hommes & des Anges. A Paris, Chez Sebastien Cramoisy, rue S. Jacques, aux Cicognes. M.D CXXI. [1621].
Hardcover. First Edition. Vellum-bound. Thick duodecimo (140 x 110 mm), pp. [16], 1068. Signatures: a⁸ A-2X¹² Yy⁸. French text. Contemporary full vellum binding. Initial and terminal blanks present. Title-page woodcut vignette. Woodcut illustration. Decorative initials. Head- and tail-pieces. Shoulder notes.
Condition: FAIR to GOOD. Binding secure. Covers with some marks and wrinkles. Title-page with slight edge erosion, leaf following title partially missing, remaining textual leaves clean and well preserved. Initial and terminal blanks with ragged fore edges. Some inked annotations to front blank. Extremely rare - not in Copac; USTC (number 6002827 - incorrect publication date recorded) registers only one copy, at Bibliothèque Municipal, Bordeaux.
Notes: Nicolas Coeffeteau (1574 – 21 April 1623) was a French theologian, poet and historian born at Saint-Calais. He entered the Dominican order and lectured on philosophy at Paris, being also ordinary preacher to Henry IV, and afterwards ambassador at Rome. In 1606 he was vicar-general of the congregation of France, and received from Marie de' Medici the revenues of the sees of Lombez and Saintes. He also administered the diocese of Metz, and was nominated to the diocese of Marseille in 1621, but ill health obliged him here to take a coadjutor. Coeffeteau won considerable distinction in the controversy against the Protestant reformers and also wrote a History of Rome from Augustus to Constantine. Many of his theological writings were collected in one volume (Paris, 1622), and at the time of his death he was engaged on a translation of the New Testament which is still in manuscript. He was buried in the now demolished church of the Couvent des Jacobins in Paris. He was acclaimed for his command of the French language. Claude Favre de Vaugelas cited him as one of the two masters of the language at the time -"Nicolas Coeffeteau, dominicain, évêque de Marseille, un des fondateurs de la prose française, 1574-1623". The present work, written towards the end of his life, is extremely rare. It is not registered in Copac, while USTC (6002827) registers only one copy, at Bibliothèque Municipal, Bordeaux, France.
