GODEAU Antoine (1605-1672) poète et orateur sacré, évêque de Grasse et de Vence, membre fondateur de l'Académie dont il participa à la rédaction des statuts [AF 1634, 10e f].

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GODEAU Antoine (1605-1672) poète et orateur sacré, évêque de Grasse et de Vence, membre fondateur de l'Académie dont il participa à la rédaction des statuts [AF 1634, 10e f].
L.S. " Anthoine Evesque de Grasse ", Dreux November 3, 1636, to Cardinal de LA VALETTE; 1 page in-fol., address on verso with small red wax seal with arms (broken; portrait engraved by Jacques Lubin enclosed). Beautiful and rare letter on his upcoming coronation as bishop of Grasse, and on his poems. [The one who was nicknamed the "Dwarf of Julie" at the Hôtel de Rambouillet had received the priesthood on May 7, 1636, and had been named by Richelieu bishop of Grasse on June 21; consecrated in Paris on December 24, he will take possession of his diocese only on December 28, 1637]. He thanked the cardinal for his letter "which I could not read without extraordinary movements of joy, finding in it such glorious testimonies of your remembrance and of your friendship. I owe them to your generosity alone, and I can only recognize them by continuous prayers. I made the palm of which you speak to me a long time ago. But it is in Paris, where I hope to return in a fortnight, to arrange the things necessary for my coronation. For my bulls have arrived, which cost me five thousand francs. However, I am sending you an Eglogue and a Hymn on the birth of our Lord. Read these works with preoccupied eyes, and do not remember, if you please, either Virgil or Horace. For you will find that with them I do not know how to beg. It does not matter to me however that you estimate me a bad poet provided that you preserve me the quality, which I hold so dear, Monseigneur de vos treshumble et tresobeissant serviteur ". L'Académie française au fil des lettres, p. 24-25.
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