Extremely Rare 1510 Illustrated Edition of Lefevre's Famous "Recueil des Hystoires Troyennes." The Fairfax Murray Copy
recueil des hystoires troyennes. ou est conte nue la genealogie de Saturne [&] de Jupiter... Cy comence le volume intitule le recueil des hystoires de troye compose par... Raoul lefevre prestre chapellain de tresredoubte seigneur monseigneur le duc phillipe de bourgoingne.
Lyon: Jacques Sacon, 1510.
Le recueil des hystoires troyennes. ou est conte nue la genealogie de Saturne [&] de Jupiter... Cy comence le volume intitule le recueil des hystoires de troye compose par... Raoul lefevre prestre chapellain de tresredoubte seigneur monseigneur le duc phillipe de bourgoingne... Lyons: Jacques Sacon, 1510.
Extremely rare 1510 illustrated edition (probably a unique example) of Le Fevre's famous Troy Book, first printed by Caxton at Bruges about 1473-4, that being both Caxton's first book and the first book printed in the English language. Caxton's second book was the same work printed at Bruges in French, which may be the first work of French literature ever printed, and one of the first of any texts in the French language. The first edition printed in France is reported as at Lyons in 1486. The second edition in France is reported as printed at Lyons in 1490, the woodcuts of which are also found in the present edition and that of the abridged reprint of 1544. One or the other of the 1486 or 1490 edition may be suppositious, as both are cited with the same day of the same month – an error that might have arisen from a misprint "six" for "dix" in Brunet (Supplement to Brunet I, col. 814) and this being followed by Copinger in his Supplement to Hain. Brunet (III, col. 926) was unable to cite any copy of this book in any collection or catalogue. Baudrier also described this copy.
Small folio. (298 x 196 mm. 161 leaves (of 162); lacks final blank G8. a8 b-t6 A-E6 F8 G7 (of 8). Gothic type. 43 long lines to a page. 98 woodcuts, only a few, repeated; six full page cuts. On the title-page is the large device of Saccon. On the reverse is a full-page cut of the Siege, divided horizontally into two compartments: this is also on n6. On l3 is the full-page "Troye la grande:" repeated on l6. Another full-page cut of Troy on t6 and The Stratagem of the Horse on F6. In text are 92 cuts, with only a few repeated, illustrating the narrative. The illustrator seems to have worked directly from the text.
Nineteenth-century crimson morocco, gilt extra, by A. Motte, successor to Trautz-Bauzonnet. Gilt dentelles. Morocco doublures. Gilt interlacements. Gilt edges. A clean and fresh, nicely margined, copy in a fine binding, from the renowned Fairfax Murray collection of early French books.
No copy of this edition appears at auction for the last half century: In the last twenty-five years checked no copy prior to the 1544 appears except a Paris 1508 in 1977 which is nowhere else recorded or reported and is probably spurious.
Provenance: Library of C. Fairfax Murray (Fairfax Murray, French, 305).
Not in Adams; STC French; Harvard, French, Also not in American Library
computer databases OCLC and RLIN.
HBS 66481.
$75,000.
Price: $75,000.00
Item #66481