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ALDE

40 - MER DES HYSTOIRES (La), augmentee en la fin du dernier volum…
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Estimate €5,000 - €6,000
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Description
MER DES HYSTOIRES (La), augmentee en la fin du dernier volume de plusieurs belles hystoires. Et premierement des faitz gestes et victoires du roy Charles VIII, et d'aulcunes vaillances triumphantes conquestes et œuvres chevalereuses faictes ou temps du roy Louys XII. Lyon, Claude Davost for Jean Genevey dit Dyamantier, 14 November 1506. 2 volumes in one folio, brown basane, spine decorated, red edges (17th century binding). Fourth edition, and the second published in Lyon, of this very important Gothic chronicle, in which the account of events continues until 1506. It was printed by Claude Davost, known as de Troyes. The end of the second volume contains the Martyrologe des saints. La Mer des histoires is a French adaptation of the universal chronicle published in Lübeck in 1475 under the title Rudimentum novitiorum, but expanded with extracts from the chronicles of France to cover the history of the kingdom up to 1483. It was undertaken at the instigation of Charles VIII in 1483 by an anonymous cleric from Beauvaisis and published for the first time in Paris in 1488 by Pierre Le Rouge. "The value of the work lies in the numerous illustrations it received, especially in the first editions, but even the later editions, which are still very attractive, are sought after as copies of a mythical book in the eyes of bibliophiles," writes Guy Bechtel. This magnificent two-column Gothic edition is illustrated with a large initial L on both titles, depicting a knight slaying a dragon, and 246 figures in the text, using 83 different woodcuts. The illustration of the work is "entirely Gothic", notes Brun; however, the last leaves of the second volume, relating contemporary events, are illustrated with woodcuts for the occasion. Two new woodcuts have Italian models: the portrait of Cassandre Fideli, on f. 178v, and that of Damoiselle Trivulce, Milanese, on f. 187v. Missing 2 lim. ff. (ã3-4), 5 table ff. of the second volume (&1-5) and 2 blank ff. (DDD4 and &6); paper repairs at the beginning of the first volume, slightly affecting the engraved initial of the title and some characters on the first leaves, then in the lower margin of some leaves; some leaves reversed by the binder. Binding worn and restored, endpapers renewed, light spotting, a few wormholes in the first and last leaves. Bechtel, M-237 - Baudrier, I, 183 - Brunet, III, 1641 - Mortimer, n°468 - Adams, B-2876 - Brun, 258 - USTC 12930.
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About the sale Antiquarian books from the 15th to the 19th century - Astronomy
Auction location
Auction time 06/24/2026 at 2:00 PM
Lot description modified on 06/01/2026 at 4:10 PM
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