BILINGUIS MUSARUM ALUMNUS. by [LE BRUN, Antoine-Louis] - 1707: Auspice Phoebo. Par M.L.B.

8vo, pp. [iv], 182, [6] contents and privilege; numerous woodcut ornaments throughout; occasional spotting and browning, especially to last few leaves, but largely clean and fresh; contemporary ownership signature on title-page; in contemporary calf, spine gilt with raised bands and gilt morocco lettering-piece; wear to edges of boards and corners with small loss to calf, and slightly sprung, but still an attractive copy.

First edition of this collection of Latin poems, many alongside their French translations, by the poet, novelist, and fabulist Antoine-Louis Le Brun (1680-1743).

Best known for his Fables of 1722, Le Brun here offers a collection of poems ranging from the bawdy (a number of verses addressed to Bacchus) to the tragic (on the drowning of a friend in the Seine), the historical (on the capture of Barcelona by the French in 1696, and on the peace between France and Savoy in the same year), and the moral and religious (on piety and true friendship).

While the bulk of the poems are translated into French by Le Brun, a good number remain only in Latin; he confesses in the avertissement that since he wrote them aged eighteen, he had devoted himself entirely to French poetry, and that Latin had become 'presque étrangere pour luy'.

OCLC records physical copies at Lyon, the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, the BnF, and the Spanish National Library.