![Sermon joÿeulx et de grande value A tous les foulx qui sont dessoubz la nue Pour leur monstrer a saiges devenir. Lyon: [the widow of Barnabé Chaussard for] Jean Lambany, [before December 1529].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_10456_0032_000(sermon_joyeulx_et_de_grande_value_a_tous_les_foulx_qui_sont_dessoubz_l111901).jpg?w=1)
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Sermon joÿeulx et de grande value A tous les foulx qui sont dessoubz la nue Pour leur monstrer a saiges devenir. Lyons: [the widow of Barnabé Chaussard for] Jean Lambany, [before December 1529].
8° (139 x 98 mm). Collation: A8 B4. Contents: A1r (title), A1v (blank), A2r-B4r (Sermon joÿeulx in three parts), B4r (colophon), B4v (woodcut device of Jean Lambany). Gothic type, text in French and Latin, woodcut initial. (Last leaf faintly creased at corners.) Red morocco, signed by A. Motte, gilt spine, turn-ins, gilt edges. Provenance: comte de Lignerolles (sold Drouot, 5-16 March 1894, lot 1516) -- Charles Fairfax Murray (label, no. 508) -- Edmée Maus.
AN EDITION OF THE UTMOST RARITY — NO COPIES ARE KNOWN IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES. THE TEXT BELONGS TO THE GENRE OF MOCK-SERMONS, A GENRE PARTICULARLY POPULAR AND FULLY DEVELOPED IN FRANCE FROM THE 15TH CENTURY. IT COMMONLY PRESENTS A MONOLOGUE BURLESQUE PARODYING SERMONS OF PREACHERS AND PARISH PRIESTS. A DESIRABLE BOOKLET FROM THE DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE LIBRARIES OF THE COMTE DE LIGNEROLLES, FAIRFAX MURRAY AND EDMÉE MAUS.
This work of 445 lines is among the longer ones preserved today; the average sermon joyeux consists of around 250 lines. Like the 'serious' preachers addressing congregations, schools or family celebrations, the sermons joyeux were performed in front of a live audience that gathered for weddings or other social festivities. Different elements of the text suggest that in this case the sermon was to be addressed to a wedding party of approximately 300 members, the majority of whom would have had to have been well educated in order to understand the sections in Latin that were mixed with the French. This sermon states explicitly: 'Or, sus donc, nouveaulx mariez…S’il y a donc icy troys cens Hommes a les comprendre tous… Vous autres qui entendez latin…'. In most cases, speaker ('predicateur') was a man dressed as a woman, unless the content of the sermon explicitly required a woman as a preacher, as for example, in the Sermon Joyeux des Femmes. Here, the discourse is divided into three parts: after enumerating the different kinds of fools, braggarts, 'wise men', lovers and jealous people, the author continues in a vivid and entertaining style to list the different foreign fools by country or province of origin and also by profession. 'Folz artistes et phisiciens / Escripvains et arismetiques / Paintres verriers imprimeurs lunatiques / Tous ses sotz par ma conscience / Sont foulx par force de science…'.
Davies, Fairfax Murray French, 508 (this copy); Brunet V, 308; Jelle Koopmans, Recueil de Sermon joyeux. Édition critique avec introduction, notes et glossaire, Genève, Édition Droz 1988 (Textes litteraires français, 362); Jelle Koopmans and Paul Verhuyck, Sermon joyeux et truanderie. Amsterdam, Rodopi, 1987.
8° (139 x 98 mm). Collation: A8 B4. Contents: A1r (title), A1v (blank), A2r-B4r (Sermon joÿeulx in three parts), B4r (colophon), B4v (woodcut device of Jean Lambany). Gothic type, text in French and Latin, woodcut initial. (Last leaf faintly creased at corners.) Red morocco, signed by A. Motte, gilt spine, turn-ins, gilt edges. Provenance: comte de Lignerolles (sold Drouot, 5-16 March 1894, lot 1516) -- Charles Fairfax Murray (label, no. 508) -- Edmée Maus.
AN EDITION OF THE UTMOST RARITY — NO COPIES ARE KNOWN IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES. THE TEXT BELONGS TO THE GENRE OF MOCK-SERMONS, A GENRE PARTICULARLY POPULAR AND FULLY DEVELOPED IN FRANCE FROM THE 15TH CENTURY. IT COMMONLY PRESENTS A MONOLOGUE BURLESQUE PARODYING SERMONS OF PREACHERS AND PARISH PRIESTS. A DESIRABLE BOOKLET FROM THE DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE LIBRARIES OF THE COMTE DE LIGNEROLLES, FAIRFAX MURRAY AND EDMÉE MAUS.
This work of 445 lines is among the longer ones preserved today; the average sermon joyeux consists of around 250 lines. Like the 'serious' preachers addressing congregations, schools or family celebrations, the sermons joyeux were performed in front of a live audience that gathered for weddings or other social festivities. Different elements of the text suggest that in this case the sermon was to be addressed to a wedding party of approximately 300 members, the majority of whom would have had to have been well educated in order to understand the sections in Latin that were mixed with the French. This sermon states explicitly: 'Or, sus donc, nouveaulx mariez…S’il y a donc icy troys cens Hommes a les comprendre tous… Vous autres qui entendez latin…'. In most cases, speaker ('predicateur') was a man dressed as a woman, unless the content of the sermon explicitly required a woman as a preacher, as for example, in the Sermon Joyeux des Femmes. Here, the discourse is divided into three parts: after enumerating the different kinds of fools, braggarts, 'wise men', lovers and jealous people, the author continues in a vivid and entertaining style to list the different foreign fools by country or province of origin and also by profession. 'Folz artistes et phisiciens / Escripvains et arismetiques / Paintres verriers imprimeurs lunatiques / Tous ses sotz par ma conscience / Sont foulx par force de science…'.
Davies, Fairfax Murray French, 508 (this copy); Brunet V, 308; Jelle Koopmans, Recueil de Sermon joyeux. Édition critique avec introduction, notes et glossaire, Genève, Édition Droz 1988 (Textes litteraires français, 362); Jelle Koopmans and Paul Verhuyck, Sermon joyeux et truanderie. Amsterdam, Rodopi, 1987.
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