Details
[Mer des histoires]. Le premier [second] volume de la mer des histoires... Est contenu tant du vieil testament que du nouveau toutes les hystoires, actes et faicts dignes de memoire [de]puis la creation du monde iusques en lan mil cinq cens... Ensemble les chose faictes... en France depuis lan 1543 jusques en ceste presente annee. Paris: Les Angeliers [Arnoul and Charles L'Angelier] for Jean Bonhomme II, [1550?].
2 volumes in one, 2o (314 x 199 mm). Btarde type, woodcut and metalcut initials. First title printed in red and black, both titles with grotesque initials and printed within woodcut architectural border incorporating the printers' device of two tied angels, numerous woodcut illustrations and genealogical tables of which several full-page, 2 double-page woodcut circular maps, of the world and Palestine. (Without first blank leaf, title rehinged, Palestine map defective, 9 full-page cuts folded to fit in the binding and defective at fore-margins, lower corner of fol. ll4 torn away with loss to a dozen words, a few other discreet repairs, printing flaw to A6r affecting 2 words, a few woodcuts with borders shaved, washed and pressed). Modern Jansenist morocco, title gilt on spine, turn-ins gilt, gilt edges. Provenance: Charles Desnos (contemporary signature on title and 8r, a few marginalia [cropped]).
The text is a compilation of the free French translation (possibly by Vincent Commin, first published Paris 1488-89) of the Rudimentum novitiorum, an encyclopaedic history of the world combining biblical and secular history with pagan mythology; the Chroniques de Saint-Denis; and Pierre Desrey's French version of Robert Gaguin, Compendium super francorum gestis. The unknown compiler also included the relation of a voyage to the Holy Land made in 1283 by the Dominican Burchardus de Monte Sion, to whom the work was incorrectly attributed in G. Du Pr's preface to his 1536 edition and by bibliographers thereafter. Although the title states that the chronicle extends beyond 1543, it ends at 1535. This edition was issued concurrently with and is sometimes bound with the Angelier or other edition of a third volume containing Jean Le Gendre, Tiers livre de la fleur et mer des hystoires..., which continues the chronicle to 1550.
The text and its illustrations enjoyed great popularity in the first half of the 16th century. The woodcuts descend directly from those of the first French edition, Lbeck 1475. Although a few of the woodblocks may be traced to the 1488 and ca. 1503 Paris editions, the majority, including the two archaic double-page maps, were first used in the Lyons 1506 edition by C. Davoust. They passed into Parisian hands before 1516, where they were used for a number of editions, all imitating in typography and layout the earliest French editions. The present rare edition, the latest recorded and strikingly anachronistic in appearance, must have been printed before October 1552, date of the death of Jean Bonhomme II. BM/STC French p. 83; cf. Brunet III, 1641 (implying an earlier date) and 1642 (variant issue, les Angeliers for Oudin Petit); cf. Cambell, The Earliest Printed Maps, p. 145.
2 volumes in one, 2
The text is a compilation of the free French translation (possibly by Vincent Commin, first published Paris 1488-89) of the Rudimentum novitiorum, an encyclopaedic history of the world combining biblical and secular history with pagan mythology; the Chroniques de Saint-Denis; and Pierre Desrey's French version of Robert Gaguin, Compendium super francorum gestis. The unknown compiler also included the relation of a voyage to the Holy Land made in 1283 by the Dominican Burchardus de Monte Sion, to whom the work was incorrectly attributed in G. Du Pr's preface to his 1536 edition and by bibliographers thereafter. Although the title states that the chronicle extends beyond 1543, it ends at 1535. This edition was issued concurrently with and is sometimes bound with the Angelier or other edition of a third volume containing Jean Le Gendre, Tiers livre de la fleur et mer des hystoires..., which continues the chronicle to 1550.
The text and its illustrations enjoyed great popularity in the first half of the 16th century. The woodcuts descend directly from those of the first French edition, Lbeck 1475. Although a few of the woodblocks may be traced to the 1488 and ca. 1503 Paris editions, the majority, including the two archaic double-page maps, were first used in the Lyons 1506 edition by C. Davoust. They passed into Parisian hands before 1516, where they were used for a number of editions, all imitating in typography and layout the earliest French editions. The present rare edition, the latest recorded and strikingly anachronistic in appearance, must have been printed before October 1552, date of the death of Jean Bonhomme II. BM/STC French p. 83; cf. Brunet III, 1641 (implying an earlier date) and 1642 (variant issue, les Angeliers for Oudin Petit); cf. Cambell, The Earliest Printed Maps, p. 145.
Sale room notice
Please note that the illustration is from lot 164, not lot 163.