RONSARD (Pierre de). Les Œuvres. Reueues, corrigées & augmentees par l'Autheur. Paris : Gabriel Buon, 1584. - In-folio, 371 x 242 : (6 ff.), 919 pp., (6 ff.). Tan calf, gilt fillet and gilt wreath of foliage in the center of the boards, spine with ornate nerves (period binding). Ducimetière, Mignonne, allons voir..., no. 20, p. 86. - Barbier-Muller, Ma bibliothèque poétique, II, n° 59, pp. 199-207. An important edition, the sixth collective but the last to appear during the author's lifetime; it is also the only work of French poetry published in this format at the time of its publication. It includes 32 previously unpublished pieces and four woodcut portraits of Marc-Antoine Muret, Ronsard, Charles IX and Henri III. "From 1582 onwards, Ronsard's health deteriorated rapidly: beset by the perpetual torments of a cruel gout, he contemplated his end and decided to put his last strength into the production of a new collective edition of his works, which was to constitute his literary testament. [...] There are only thirty-two previously unpublished pieces in these pages, and most of Ronsard's work consisted of a thorough reorganization of the layout of the texts [...] The main innovation is the creation of a new section called "Le Bocage royal", entirely dedicated to Henri III, whose portrait appears at the head of the section. [...] The moving memory of Charles IX is evoked by an unpublished text, an elegy "Sur le livre de la chasse du feu Roy Charles IX", which was to open this treatise on hunting (finally published in 1625). Printed by Buon in a gigantic, majestic folio, the single volume was indeed a monument" (Ducimetière, Mignonne, allons voir..., no. 20, p. 86). A fine copy in contemporary binding. On the title, an early owner has indicated Ronsard's year of birth and year of death. Binding very skilfully restored, traces of wetness on the boards. Mottling on the edges of most leaves. Bottom margin of title redone. Dark marks on the edges of the first few leaves. Ink and russet stains on pages 111 to 118. Provenance: Signature partly erased (Mesla...) and another crossed out on the title.