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Epitome gestorum LVIII. Regum Franciae, a pharamondo ad hunc usque Christianissimum Franciscum Valesium. Epitome des Gestes des cinquante huict roys de France, depuis Pharamond iusques au present tres Chrestien Françoys de Valoys. Lyon: Balthazar Arnoullet, 1546.
8o in half-sheets (171 x 121 mm). 58 etched medallion portraits attributed to Corneille de Lyon or Corneille de La Haye. (Outer half of A2 completed with the outer half of A2 from another copy, a few small repaired holes on title.) Crimson morocco, edges gilt, with the arms of Maxwell on the sides (joints lightly rubbed). Provenance: William Sterling Maxwell (binding; bookplates); acquired from Georges Heilbrun, 1965.
FIRST EDITION, issue with the letterpress title-page. THE SECOND FRENCH BOOK WITH ENGRAVED ILLUSTRATIONS and the first French book to have intaglio illustrations printed on the same page as the text. The first French book to include engraved illustrations was the 1488 Lyon Breydenbach (separately engraved plates). Robert-Dumesnil attributes the engravings to Lyonese painter Claude Corneille. According to Mortimer: "It is possible that these are the work of the painter known as Corneille de Lyon or Corneille de La Haye. N. Rondot discusses this question in his chapter on Corneille de la Haye in L'art et les artistes à Lyon, p. [225]-269, giving a full list of these portraits among the works of the "Maître au Double C.' Rondot rejects the name 'Claude Corneille' suggested by some writers to explain the monogram. Some of these engravings are copies of a series of woodcut portraits in Jean Bouchet's Les anciennes et modernes genealogies des roys de France," from 1527.
NUC locates only the Hofer copy. The copy at BL is imperfect, and it is not in Adams, Fairfax Murray, Rosenwald or Rothschild. Another issue with the title engraved within a border of scrollwork and grotesques was issued the same year. Baudrier X:116-7; Brun, Le livre illustre en France, pp.126-7 and 196; Fairfax Murray French 154 (note); Hind, p.102; Mortimer French 209.
8o in half-sheets (171 x 121 mm). 58 etched medallion portraits attributed to Corneille de Lyon or Corneille de La Haye. (Outer half of A2 completed with the outer half of A2 from another copy, a few small repaired holes on title.) Crimson morocco, edges gilt, with the arms of Maxwell on the sides (joints lightly rubbed). Provenance: William Sterling Maxwell (binding; bookplates); acquired from Georges Heilbrun, 1965.
FIRST EDITION, issue with the letterpress title-page. THE SECOND FRENCH BOOK WITH ENGRAVED ILLUSTRATIONS and the first French book to have intaglio illustrations printed on the same page as the text. The first French book to include engraved illustrations was the 1488 Lyon Breydenbach (separately engraved plates). Robert-Dumesnil attributes the engravings to Lyonese painter Claude Corneille. According to Mortimer: "It is possible that these are the work of the painter known as Corneille de Lyon or Corneille de La Haye. N. Rondot discusses this question in his chapter on Corneille de la Haye in L'art et les artistes à Lyon, p. [225]-269, giving a full list of these portraits among the works of the "Maître au Double C.' Rondot rejects the name 'Claude Corneille' suggested by some writers to explain the monogram. Some of these engravings are copies of a series of woodcut portraits in Jean Bouchet's Les anciennes et modernes genealogies des roys de France," from 1527.
NUC locates only the Hofer copy. The copy at BL is imperfect, and it is not in Adams, Fairfax Murray, Rosenwald or Rothschild. Another issue with the title engraved within a border of scrollwork and grotesques was issued the same year. Baudrier X:116-7; Brun, Le livre illustre en France, pp.126-7 and 196; Fairfax Murray French 154 (note); Hind, p.102; Mortimer French 209.