OVIDIUS NASO. LE GRAND OLYMPE DES HISTOIRES POÉTIQUES du prince de poesie Ovide Naso en sa Metamorphose, [translator anonymous], Paris, [J.Réal] (for) Vivant Gaultherot, 1539 [colophon 1538], 3 vols. in one, 8vo, lettres bâtardes, 3 titles with woodcut border of the royal arms of France and 14 other French coats of arms, title of vol. I in red and black, publisher's emblem at end, 155 woodcut illustrations, some repeated, criblé and other initials (one woodcut with traces of hand-colouring, preliminaries and final leaves somewhat affected by damp, 20th-century red morocco, titled in gilt. [Brunet IV, 283; Brun 275; Duplessis 66; Henkel 72; Mortimer, French Books II, 398; BMC of French Books 333; not in Adams or Murray]

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OVIDIUS NASO. LE GRAND OLYMPE DES HISTOIRES POÉTIQUES du prince de poesie Ovide Naso en sa Metamorphose, [translator anonymous], Paris, [J.Réal] (for) Vivant Gaultherot, 1539 [colophon 1538], 3 vols. in one, 8vo, lettres bâtardes, 3 titles with woodcut border of the royal arms of France and 14 other French coats of arms, title of vol. I in red and black, publisher's emblem at end, 155 woodcut illustrations, some repeated, criblé and other initials (one woodcut with traces of hand-colouring, preliminaries and final leaves somewhat affected by damp, 20th-century red morocco, titled in gilt. [Brunet IV, 283; Brun 275; Duplessis 66; Henkel 72; Mortimer, French Books II, 398; BMC of French Books 333; not in Adams or Murray]

Lot Essay

One of 4 recorded publisher's imprints for Jean Réal's 1538 edition. The blocks were designed for an edition of Virgil and derive from the illustrations in the Strassburg Virgil edited by Sebastian Brant and printed in 1502.

Sale: Broxbourne Library, Sotheby's 8 May 1978, Lot 481. #950 to Rosenthal.

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