LORRIS, Guillaume de (first half of 13th century), and Jean de MEUNG (d.1305). Le Romant de la Rose moralisé cler et net. Prose translation by Jean Molinet (1435-1507). Lyons: Guillaume Balsarin, 1503.
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LORRIS, Guillaume de (first half of 13th century), and Jean de MEUNG (d.1305). Le Romant de la Rose moralisé cler et net. Prose translation by Jean Molinet (1435-1507). Lyons: Guillaume Balsarin, 1503.

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LORRIS, Guillaume de (first half of 13th century), and Jean de MEUNG (d.1305). Le Romant de la Rose moralisé cler et net. Prose translation by Jean Molinet (1435-1507). Lyons: Guillaume Balsarin, 1503.

2° (260 x 185mm). Bâtarde type. 140 woodcuts, printer's device at end, woodcut historiated and ornamental initials, woodcut grotesque initial opening text. (Without blank a4, washed.) 19th-century English red morocco gilt, gilt edges. Provenance: early French inscriptions washed from first and last leaf -- Thomas Edward Watson (bookplate; by descent to the present owners).

FIRST EDITION OF MOLINET'S PROSE VERSION of the Roman de la Rose. Cast as an allegorical dream-vision, it embodies the love philosophy of the troubadours and recites a young man's quest for love and his struggle to attain it. Begun in about 1225, it was continued by Jean de Meung in about 1240; Molinet's prose version with commentary interprets the poem as a spiritual allegory. The woodcuts are copies of those used by Siber in his edition (Lyons: c.1485), and the grotesque initial L was previously used by Jean de Lafontaine in his late publications. Baudrier XII, 60; Brunet III, 1176 ('difficile à trouver bien conservé').
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