BRIÇONNET, Guillaume.

One of the last publications by the famous Parisian printer Henri Estienne: important for the history of the Reformation in France, Sermo synodalis R. in Christo Patris D. Guillermi Meldensis Episcopi, habitus Meldis, anno 1519, die 13 Octobris: quo monentur quibus ouium cura credita est, illis praesentes invigilare.

      Henri Estienne, 1520., Paris, - 4to. 19th century vellum, spine lettered in ink. Printed in Estienne's beautiful roman type; one criblé initial at the beginning. (14) leaves. Extremely rare (Schreiber) original edition of this sermon, and one of the last editions printed by the famous Parisian printer Henri Estienne, published in the year of his death. The work consists of a sermon delivered by Guillaume Briçonnet (1470-1534) on 13 October 1519 in Meaux, where he was bishop. In this sermon the bishop urges and admonishes his clergy and priests to take care personally and to be present in their respective parishes. He doesn't blame their ignorance or incompetence, but their absence from their parishes and their habit to designate substitutes ('vicaires') to fulfill their duties; and these substitutes, to be sure, are often ignorant and incompetent indeed.çonnet, a close friend of Lefèvre d'Etaples - who dedicated several of his humanistic works to him - was a relative through marriage of the great bibliophile Jean Grolier, who married Anne Briçonnet in 1516. He was appointed bishop at Lodève and later at Meaux, after the Kings Louis XII and François I had charged him with a number of difficult missions to the Pope. Returned at Meaux he assembled a circle of scholars around him such as Guillaume Farel, Lefèvre d'Etaples, Clichtove, Gérard Roussel and François Vatable. There were also Calvinists among them who have had a great influence on him. As a man of letters he has augmented greatly the library of the monastry of Saint-Germain-des-Près. Very good copy of this extremely rare sermon with the bookplates of Comte de Briailles and Paul Schmidt. Renouard, p.22, nr.1; Schreiber 32; Cioranescu 4875; B. Moreau 2274; M. Veissière, L'éveque Guillaume Briçonnet, p. 486 and 157-178; not in Adams