![LANCELOT DU LAC. Paris: Antoine Vérard, "Lan mil quatre cens quatre vingtz et quatorze. Le premier ious de Juillet" [ca 1504].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2001/NYR/2001_NYR_09878_0416_000(033328).jpg?w=1)
Details
LANCELOT DU LAC. Paris: Antoine Vérard, "Lan mil quatre cens quatre vingtz et quatorze. Le premier ious de Juillet" [ca 1504].
3 volumes bound in one, median 2o (321 x 216 mm). Collation: vol. I a6 (title, dedication to Charles VIII, contents table), b-z A-G8 H6 I4 (text, I4v colophon); vol. II aa4 (title, table), bb-zz8 &&6 \\j\\j4 (text, -bb1 blank); vol. III 2A6 (title, table), aaa-zzz AAA-DDD8 EEE-GGG6 (text, GGG5v colophon and publisher's woodcut device, -GGG6 blank). 248, 189, 239 leaves (without the two blanks). Bâtarde type 12:106. 45 lines, double column. 28 large woodcut illustrations, including some repeats; large grotesque and smaller decorative woodcut initials. (Sheet iii3.6 an original manuscript replacement [text cut into at outer columns by the 16th-century binder], quire nnn8 supplied in the 16th century or earlier from the 1494 first Vérard edition with 47 lines to the column and bâtarde type 117mm.)
BINDING: gold-tooled Parisian brown calf of ca 1575, over paste-board, hatched roll-tooled border on sides, arms of Nicolas Moreau in the center, wide flat spine decorated with small tools, gilt edges, original endpapers, (joints split, corners repaired). Quarter-morocco box. Provenance: Nicolas Moreau, Sieur d'Auteuil (ownership inscriptions dated 1575, his motto A Lamy Son Coeur), with some marginal notes in his hand -- Rochefoucauld family, possibly including the author of Maximes 1665 (Château de la Roche Guyon stamp) -- Boies Penrose (bookplate) -- purchased from John F. Fleming, New York, November 1979.
Third edition of one of the most famous romances in the Arthurian cycle, the second edition published by Vérard. The first edition of parts 1 and 2 was published at Rouen in 1488 by Jean Le Bourgeois, a few months after Jean Du Pré had published volume 3 in Paris. Vérard followed with a complete edition in April-July 1494. He reprinted the book in a different type, without changing the date, shortly after moving to a new address in 1503. Another edition of his, at least of vol. 3, may have appeared a little earlier (BMC VIII, 91-92 IC. 41161).
The French prose version of Lancelot of the Lake may be at least partly based on a romance by Walter Map, Henri II's chancellor. It was an ideal text for Vérard's aristocratic market. He illustrated it mostly with blocks previously used in other books and did a vellum issue of his first edition with miniatures. As is the case for most Vérard productions, complete paper copies of either edition in fine condition are EXTREMELY RARE. Fresh and unpressed copy. HC 9850; Proctor 8459; Brunet III, 806; Macfarlane 166.
3 volumes bound in one, median 2o (321 x 216 mm). Collation: vol. I a6 (title, dedication to Charles VIII, contents table), b-z A-G8 H6 I4 (text, I4v colophon); vol. II aa4 (title, table), bb-zz8 &&6 \\j\\j4 (text, -bb1 blank); vol. III 2A6 (title, table), aaa-zzz AAA-DDD8 EEE-GGG6 (text, GGG5v colophon and publisher's woodcut device, -GGG6 blank). 248, 189, 239 leaves (without the two blanks). Bâtarde type 12:106. 45 lines, double column. 28 large woodcut illustrations, including some repeats; large grotesque and smaller decorative woodcut initials. (Sheet iii3.6 an original manuscript replacement [text cut into at outer columns by the 16th-century binder], quire nnn8 supplied in the 16th century or earlier from the 1494 first Vérard edition with 47 lines to the column and bâtarde type 117mm.)
BINDING: gold-tooled Parisian brown calf of ca 1575, over paste-board, hatched roll-tooled border on sides, arms of Nicolas Moreau in the center, wide flat spine decorated with small tools, gilt edges, original endpapers, (joints split, corners repaired). Quarter-morocco box. Provenance: Nicolas Moreau, Sieur d'Auteuil (ownership inscriptions dated 1575, his motto A Lamy Son Coeur), with some marginal notes in his hand -- Rochefoucauld family, possibly including the author of Maximes 1665 (Château de la Roche Guyon stamp) -- Boies Penrose (bookplate) -- purchased from John F. Fleming, New York, November 1979.
Third edition of one of the most famous romances in the Arthurian cycle, the second edition published by Vérard. The first edition of parts 1 and 2 was published at Rouen in 1488 by Jean Le Bourgeois, a few months after Jean Du Pré had published volume 3 in Paris. Vérard followed with a complete edition in April-July 1494. He reprinted the book in a different type, without changing the date, shortly after moving to a new address in 1503. Another edition of his, at least of vol. 3, may have appeared a little earlier (BMC VIII, 91-92 IC. 41161).
The French prose version of Lancelot of the Lake may be at least partly based on a romance by Walter Map, Henri II's chancellor. It was an ideal text for Vérard's aristocratic market. He illustrated it mostly with blocks previously used in other books and did a vellum issue of his first edition with miniatures. As is the case for most Vérard productions, complete paper copies of either edition in fine condition are EXTREMELY RARE. Fresh and unpressed copy. HC 9850; Proctor 8459; Brunet III, 806; Macfarlane 166.