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GERARD D'EUPHRATE. Le premier livre de l'histoire & ancienne cronique de Gerard d'Euphrate, Duc de Bovrgongne. Trans. by Nicolas de Herberay. Paris: Etienne Groulleau for Jean Longis, 1549.
2o (316 x 219 mm). Roman and italic types. Collation: a6; A-Z6: 143 (of 144, lacking final blank) leaves. 42 lines and headline. Longis's device (Renouard 682) on title-page, 46 woodcuts of various sizes (27 blocks, 19 repeats), 17 printed within a variety of woodcut armorial borders, 92 six- line woodcut Janot-thistle initials. Ruled in red. 17th-century French calf gilt (a few repairs at ends of spine, joints slightly rubbed). Provenance: Robert Drummond, Megginch Castle (bookplate); acquired from Librairie Rossignol, 1962.
FIRST EDITION of Nicolas de Herberay's translation of the romance of Charlemagne's circle, from the anonymous verses of a Walloon poet. The first edition was printed by Etienne Groulleau and issued simultaneously with the imprints (and devices) of Groulleau, Jean Longis, and Vincent Sertenas. Though the privilege on the title extended to a total of six planned volumes, only this volume was published.
Most of the woodcuts first appeared in Janot's 1540 edition of Amadis de Gaule and his 1546 edition of Palmerin de Oliva. Mortimer states that "as is usual with work of this quality, the names of both the elder Jean Cousin and Jean Goujon have been proposed in connection with these blocks, but no really satisfactory attribution has been made." The three largest blocks (B3r, Elr, and E4r) were cut specifically for this work, as was the smaller scene of the abduction of the child Gerard (C2r, "in the style of the remarkable 1545 Homer published by Vincent Sertenas," Mortimer). The most famous illustration in Gerard is the largely white-on-black impression of "Ethiopians before the throne of the King of the Underworld" (E4r). The text is also ornamented with a fine white alphabet of woodcut initials containing the Janot thistle and a variety of woodcut armorial illustration-borders, both of which also originated with the 1540 Amadis. Not in Adams, Fairfax Murray, or Rothschild. Brun 213; Brunet 2:1546 (Sertenas issue); 5Jh. Buchill. 92; Mortimer French 246 (Groulleau issue). Fact and Fantasy 34.
2o (316 x 219 mm). Roman and italic types. Collation: a6; A-Z6: 143 (of 144, lacking final blank) leaves. 42 lines and headline. Longis's device (Renouard 682) on title-page, 46 woodcuts of various sizes (27 blocks, 19 repeats), 17 printed within a variety of woodcut armorial borders, 92 six- line woodcut Janot-thistle initials. Ruled in red. 17th-century French calf gilt (a few repairs at ends of spine, joints slightly rubbed). Provenance: Robert Drummond, Megginch Castle (bookplate); acquired from Librairie Rossignol, 1962.
FIRST EDITION of Nicolas de Herberay's translation of the romance of Charlemagne's circle, from the anonymous verses of a Walloon poet. The first edition was printed by Etienne Groulleau and issued simultaneously with the imprints (and devices) of Groulleau, Jean Longis, and Vincent Sertenas. Though the privilege on the title extended to a total of six planned volumes, only this volume was published.
Most of the woodcuts first appeared in Janot's 1540 edition of Amadis de Gaule and his 1546 edition of Palmerin de Oliva. Mortimer states that "as is usual with work of this quality, the names of both the elder Jean Cousin and Jean Goujon have been proposed in connection with these blocks, but no really satisfactory attribution has been made." The three largest blocks (B3r, Elr, and E4r) were cut specifically for this work, as was the smaller scene of the abduction of the child Gerard (C2r, "in the style of the remarkable 1545 Homer published by Vincent Sertenas," Mortimer). The most famous illustration in Gerard is the largely white-on-black impression of "Ethiopians before the throne of the King of the Underworld" (E4r). The text is also ornamented with a fine white alphabet of woodcut initials containing the Janot thistle and a variety of woodcut armorial illustration-borders, both of which also originated with the 1540 Amadis. Not in Adams, Fairfax Murray, or Rothschild. Brun 213; Brunet 2:1546 (Sertenas issue); 5Jh. Buchill. 92; Mortimer French 246 (Groulleau issue). Fact and Fantasy 34.