Lettres missives et familieres [...], Avec le monologue de la providence divine, au peuple François. Reveües, corrigees & augmentees de plusieurs lettres amoureuses, tirees tant de l'Italien du Bembe, que de plusieurs autres Autheurs

Small 8vo. (16), 404 leaves (with errors in the foliation). A-Z8, Aa-Zz8, AA-FF8. With the printer's device on the title-page and a medaillon woodcut portrait of the author. Contemporary overlapping vellum (page A3r with faint printing and leaf B1 with a small portion torn away affecting the text; both are completed by photocopies).
C. Magnien-Simonin, Etienne du Tronchet, secrétaire, des ‘Lettres missives et familères (1569) aux ‘Finance et thrésor de la plume françoise de E.D.T.' (1572), in: “ ‘Il segretario è come un angelo'. Trattati, raccolte epistolari, vite paradigmatiche, ovvero come essere un buon segretario nel Rinascimento”, R. Gorris Camos, ed., (Fasano, 2008), pp. 199-213; L. Vaillancourt, La lettre famimilière au XVIe siècle. Rhétorique humaniste de l'épistolaire, (Paris, 2003), pp. 235-279.
 
OF THIS EDITON only one other copy is apparently recorded (Universitätsbibliothek, Basel). It is a reprint of the edition printed at Lyon by the heirs of François Didier in 1591 (Baudrier, IV, p. 95), which is on the other hand a reprint of the Paris edition issued by Abel l'Angelier in 1579.
The volume contains 238 letters and has printed at the end a long poem (entitled Le monologue de providence divine, au Peuple François) and a Recueil des lettres amoureuses, tirees de l'Italien de Pierre Bembo, que de plusieurs autres (ll. 387v-404v). The added 18 love letters translated from the Italian, some of which are by Pietro Bembo, are mostly by Alvise Pasqualigo (cf. M. Sullivan, Etienne du Tronchet: autheur forézien du XVIe siècle, Washington, 1931, p. 67).
“The earliest published collections of letters in the French vernacular are largely the work of the humanists. They are inspired by Latin and Italian models and inherit the burden of medieval rhetoric, in which letter-writing is a privileged activity for cultivating the ars dictamini. Etienne Du Tronchet and Etienne Pasquier are the first to ‘defend and illustrate' the French language by cultivating the classical epistolary genre [...] Both claim to be publishing their own real letters, directly composed in French, and exhort others to write letters in their ‘mother tongue' [...] What distinguishes Du Tronchet's work, however, from these letter manuals influenced by courtesy books is the fact that his letter collection developes a persona that can be readily correlated with all of the biographical details that we know through other sources about the historical Etienne Du Tronchet, secretary to several promiment notables, and ultimately to Catherine de' Medici. And the persona that emerges from this rudimentarily autobiographical letter book, is both an aspiring poet and court secretary” (J.G. Altman, The Letter Book as a Literary Institution 1539-1789: Toward a Cultural History of Published Correspondences in France, in: “Yale French Studies”, 71, 1986, pp. 19-24).
 
Gondy, Albert de (l. 1r)
Apchon, Jacques d' (l.3v)
Espaux, François d' (l. 7v)
[Medici, Catherine de'] (l. 8v)
Apchon, Jacques d' (l. 10v)
Lettre traduicte du divin Aretin (l. 15r)
Albon, Jacques d' (l. 22r)
Genetines, Gaspar de (l. 24v)
Montpellier, Monsieur (l. 27v)
Chastillon, Jerôme de (l. 29v)
Albon, Jacques d' (l. 31v)
Clemens III, lettre de l'Italien (l. 33v)
Albon, Jacques d' (l. 36r)
id. (l. 37v)
L'exile est merveilleux (l. 38v)
Tramont, Baron de (l. 42r)
Renard, Léonard (l. 43r)
Apchon, Jean (l. 44r)
Vigner, Nicolas (l. 48r)
Albon, Jacques d' (l. 48v)
Du Peyrat, Jean (l. 53r)
Charles IX (l. 54v)
[Medici], Catherine [de'] (l. 56v)
Lanrencin, Jaquette de (l. 58v)
De tant plus est heureuse l'ame (l. 60r)
Tournon, Jean de (l. 62v)
n.r. (l. 65v)
from Clement III, tiree de l'Italien (l. 67r)
Chastillon, Jérôme de (l. 69r)
L'abus de ces Seigneuries (l. 72r)
Albon, Jacques d' (l. 75r)
id. (l. 6r)
Lettre traduite (l. 77r)
Albon, Jacques d' (l. 78v)
Tignac, Jean de (l. 79v)
Le con conseil d'un Capitaine (l. 81v)
Albon, Jacques d' (l. 83v)
from d'Albon, Jacques to d'Arpinar, Pierre (l. 85r)
Lorraine, François d