BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Le Philocope, translated from Italian into French by Adrian Sevin, Paris: Denys Janot, 24 February 1542, 2°, FIRST FRENCH EDITION, title with printer's device, 36 woodcut illustrations, including some repeats, all within elaborate armorial borders (single wormhole to upper margin of most leaves, paper fault to a few margins, light dampstaining to outer lower corner at the end, a few spots and small ink stains), 18th-century French mottled calf (worn). [Mortimer/Harvard French 105]

Details

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Le Philocope, translated from Italian into French by Adrian Sevin, Paris: Denys Janot, 24 February 1542, 2°, FIRST FRENCH EDITION, title with printer's device, 36 woodcut illustrations, including some repeats, all within elaborate armorial borders (single wormhole to upper margin of most leaves, paper fault to a few margins, light dampstaining to outer lower corner at the end, a few spots and small ink stains), 18th-century French mottled calf (worn). [Mortimer/Harvard French 105]

Provenance

Anne de Humières, Comtesse de Chaulmes, early ownership inscription and 6-line manuscript poem in French (perhaps by Anne de Humières) to title; Armand-Charles-Daniel, Comte de Firmas-Periez, ink stamp to title and E1; Ambroise Firmin-Didot, booklabel dated 1850; marginal sketches and annotations to a2v, C6v, E6 and BB2.

Lot Essay

First French edition of Boccaccio's early prose novel Filocolo. The name of the work was changed to Philocopo by an Italian editor in 1530, and Sevin adopted this and several other modifications for his translation, as well as altering the original Italian names and settings. The woodcuts are from a set of about 81 blocks widely used for romances published by Janot, Groulleau, Longois and Sertenas.

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