EARLY PRINTED BOOKS
PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN OF TITLE
FROISSART, Jean (1333 or 1337 - ca. 1410). Chroniques. Paris: printed for Antoine Vérard, [ca. 1495-1500].
Details
FROISSART, Jean (1333 or 1337 - ca. 1410). Chroniques. Paris: printed for Antoine Vérard, [ca. 1495-1500].
Volumes 1-3 (of 4), median 2° (345 x 230mm, v.3: 355 x 250mm). PRINTED ON VELLUM. Collation: v.1 a8 (title, table of contents, quire register), b-z & aa-ll8 (text); v.2 AA8 (title, table of contents, quire register), B-E8 F10 G6 H-X 2AA BB-PP8 (text); v.3 aaa6 (title, table of contents, quire register); bbb-zzz &&& 999 aaaa-eeee8 (text). V.1: 279 leaves (e2.7, ii3.6 and ii4.5 original manuscript replacement sheets, ll8 blank cancelled); v.2: 287 leaves (lacking AA8 containing register on recto and probably a miniature on verso); v.3: 237 leaves (lacking aaa6 containing table and register). Bâtarde type 12:106, double column, 46 lines, xylographic titles incorporating calligraphic L no. 4 (vv. 1-2) or no. 12 (v.3), publisher's metalcut device B following colophons. Fine full-page miniature on a8v (v.1) of a battle between archers and cavalry, with castle and ships in the background, gouache and gold paint by an artist in the circle of Jacques de Besançon, who may have supervised the illuminators in Vérard's atelier; 166 smaller column-width miniatures of battles, sieges, shipping, audiences, coronations, etc., painted in the Vérard atelier over the printed chapter-headings (replaced in original manuscript in the margins); numerous illuminated initials in gold, red and blue; ruled in red throughout, yellow capital-strokes. The manuscript replacement sheets in v.1 are in the same hand as the chapter-headings and have the same initials. (a8 with register and miniature inserted from another copy of vol. 1 since the Meerman sale, a few very minor marginal defects.)
Binding: vv. 1-2 mid-18th-century French red morocco gilt, triple fillets on sides, spines tooled in compartments (joints worn), gilt edges; v.3 similarly bound in the 1860s by Clyde of London for Lord Ashburnham. Velvet-lined morocco-and-cloth boxes.
Provenance: vv. 1-2, F. Denouyers of Bouchainville, French Flanders (monogram and inscription dated 1595); Jean Néaulme (1765 Paris sale); Gerard and Johannes Meerman (1824 Leyden sale, 150 florins); Payne & Foss (1831 inscription); Edward Vernon Utterson (1857 London sale, bookplate); vv. 1-3, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1897 London sale); Robert Hoe (1912 New York sale, bookplate); Mildred Bliss and Robert Woods Bliss of Dumbarton Oaks (bookplates).
Second edition of volumes 1-2, FIRST EDITION of volume 3, lacking volume 4. The first two volumes have been together from the beginning, the third was added by Lord Ashburnham. VELLUM SETS AS COMPLETE AS THIS ONE, ILLUMINATED AND IN FINE CONDITION, ARE OF THE GREATEST RARITY. A complete set on vellum of the first edition and another of vv. 1-2 only are in Paris BNF, Göttingen SUB has v.4; the Bigot-Bellanger-de Selle copy of vv. 1-2 cited by Van Praet is perhaps identical with the present. No other set on vellum of vv. 1-2 of the second edition is known, v.4 in Paris BNF being the only one recorded. Froissart, who was born in Valenciennes, Hainault, and visited England twice, narrates the battles of the Hundred Years' War and gives a most important contemporary account of French and English feudal chivalry. Lord Berners's English translation was first printed in 1523 by Richard Pynson at London (STC 11396). Brunet France litt. 82; Copinger 2591-2; GW 10406-7; BMC VIII, 88-9; Pellechet 4931-2; Goff F-322-3 (and suppl.); Macfarlane 111-2; Van Praet Vélins du roi V, 118-20 and VI, 135.119. (3)
Volumes 1-3 (of 4), median 2° (345 x 230mm, v.3: 355 x 250mm). PRINTED ON VELLUM. Collation: v.1 a8 (title, table of contents, quire register), b-z & aa-ll8 (text); v.2 AA8 (title, table of contents, quire register), B-E8 F10 G6 H-X 2AA BB-PP8 (text); v.3 aaa6 (title, table of contents, quire register); bbb-zzz &&& 999 aaaa-eeee8 (text). V.1: 279 leaves (e2.7, ii3.6 and ii4.5 original manuscript replacement sheets, ll8 blank cancelled); v.2: 287 leaves (lacking AA8 containing register on recto and probably a miniature on verso); v.3: 237 leaves (lacking aaa6 containing table and register). Bâtarde type 12:106, double column, 46 lines, xylographic titles incorporating calligraphic L no. 4 (vv. 1-2) or no. 12 (v.3), publisher's metalcut device B following colophons. Fine full-page miniature on a8v (v.1) of a battle between archers and cavalry, with castle and ships in the background, gouache and gold paint by an artist in the circle of Jacques de Besançon, who may have supervised the illuminators in Vérard's atelier; 166 smaller column-width miniatures of battles, sieges, shipping, audiences, coronations, etc., painted in the Vérard atelier over the printed chapter-headings (replaced in original manuscript in the margins); numerous illuminated initials in gold, red and blue; ruled in red throughout, yellow capital-strokes. The manuscript replacement sheets in v.1 are in the same hand as the chapter-headings and have the same initials. (a8 with register and miniature inserted from another copy of vol. 1 since the Meerman sale, a few very minor marginal defects.)
Binding: vv. 1-2 mid-18th-century French red morocco gilt, triple fillets on sides, spines tooled in compartments (joints worn), gilt edges; v.3 similarly bound in the 1860s by Clyde of London for Lord Ashburnham. Velvet-lined morocco-and-cloth boxes.
Provenance: vv. 1-2, F. Denouyers of Bouchainville, French Flanders (monogram and inscription dated 1595); Jean Néaulme (1765 Paris sale); Gerard and Johannes Meerman (1824 Leyden sale, 150 florins); Payne & Foss (1831 inscription); Edward Vernon Utterson (1857 London sale, bookplate); vv. 1-3, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1897 London sale); Robert Hoe (1912 New York sale, bookplate); Mildred Bliss and Robert Woods Bliss of Dumbarton Oaks (bookplates).
Second edition of volumes 1-2, FIRST EDITION of volume 3, lacking volume 4. The first two volumes have been together from the beginning, the third was added by Lord Ashburnham. VELLUM SETS AS COMPLETE AS THIS ONE, ILLUMINATED AND IN FINE CONDITION, ARE OF THE GREATEST RARITY. A complete set on vellum of the first edition and another of vv. 1-2 only are in Paris BNF, Göttingen SUB has v.4; the Bigot-Bellanger-de Selle copy of vv. 1-2 cited by Van Praet is perhaps identical with the present. No other set on vellum of vv. 1-2 of the second edition is known, v.4 in Paris BNF being the only one recorded. Froissart, who was born in Valenciennes, Hainault, and visited England twice, narrates the battles of the Hundred Years' War and gives a most important contemporary account of French and English feudal chivalry. Lord Berners's English translation was first printed in 1523 by Richard Pynson at London (STC 11396). Brunet France litt. 82; Copinger 2591-2; GW 10406-7; BMC VIII, 88-9; Pellechet 4931-2; Goff F-322-3 (and suppl.); Macfarlane 111-2; Van Praet Vélins du roi V, 118-20 and VI, 135.119. (3)