First edition of the earliest Castilian grammar written for the use of Francophones, with discussions of usage, diction, pronunciation, and orthography. The compact work was composed anonymously, but Alfred Morel-Fatio, the premier Hispanist in France at the turn of the 20th century, notes that an incomplete exemplar of La Parfaite méthode located at the Bibliothèque Nationale bears a contemporary manuscript note firmly ascribing the work to one N. Charpentier, a teacher of Spanish and son of a lecteur in the court of Henri III. Whomever the author, Morel-Fatio adjudges his work the first serious attempt at a Castilian grammar written for French speakers. The author was well versed in the literature of Spain, and uses examples from early chronicles, epic poetry, histories, and the Matter of Spain, with the heavy-hitters like Antonio de Guevara, Lope de Vega, and Antonio de Nebrija well represented. Most compelling, though, is the author's use of strophes and phrases from all three parts of Alonso de Ercilla's La Araucana (1569-89), a verse epic on the Spanish suppression of a revolt by the Mapuche Indians in Chile in 1556 during the Arauco War, and one of the first major works of New World literature. The title page of La Parfaite méthode promises a second part, on translation and composition in Spanish, but it never appeared—Morel-Fatio notes that the putative author, Charpentier, was broken alive on the Catherine wheel for pro-Spanish activities in 1597 during the war between France and Spain. (Morel-Fatio, something of a wit, stated that Charpentier couldn't have been all bad, if his legacy included this important work.) A very good copy of a seminal Castilian grammar, and a previously un-noted Americanum. No copies located in American libraries, of either this first edition, or the 1597 reissue with a reset title page recording Lucas Breyer as publisher. 

8vo: 146 x 94 x 18 mm (binding); 143 x 93 x 16 mm (text block). A-M⁸; 97 [recht: 96] ff. Contemporary limp vellum, titled in ink to spine (faded). Front free end removed; wear and soiling to covers; ties wanting. Interior: A few gatherings toned; light staining to tail corner of second gathering; pale foxing to a few pages; worming to head fore-corner of last quarter of text block, not near text. 

Provenance: Manuscript custodial remark to title of a French Franciscan reform order (Recollects de l'Aude), dated 1683, written over an earlier note (illegible).

Palau 213002; Foulché-Delbosc, Raymond, Bibliographie hispano-française, New York: Hispanic Society, 1912, part II, no. 660; Morel-Fatio, Alfred, Ambrosio de Salazar et l’étude de l’espagnol en France sous Louis XIII, Paris and Toulouse: 1900, pp. 92-100; Niederehe, Hans-Josef, Bibliografía cronológica de la lingüística, la gramática y la lexicografía del español, vol. I, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1995, p. 806. Not in Alden-Landis; overlooked by Barbier.

Item #374