Paris: Nicolas Du Chemin, 1570.

Paris: Nicolas Du Chemin, 1570].

Rare early printed Book of Hours. Two parts in one octavo volume (7 x 4 1/4 inches; 177 x 110 mm). [43], 114, [98] pp. Bound without first title-page. Printed in red and black, with engraved allegorical borders throughout. Numerous woodcut miniatures throughout the text. Section two with separate section title, with engraved vignette. Final page with engraved printer's device of griffin. We could only find two copies at libraries, one of which was also missing its title-page. Aside from this copy we could only find one other copy at auction.

Contemporary calf, rebacked with original spine laid down. Boards and spine elaborately stamped in gilt and blind. With arabesque central devices. Professional repairs to bottom margin of leaves 91-109, 114generally only affecting the blank bottom margin, and occasionally touching the engraved border. Section two with some worming, also just along blank bottom margin, occasionally repaired. Leaf 98 with closed tear repaired, no loss of text. Final leaf with colophon and printer's imprint with some repairs, but with minimal loss.

Nicolas du Chemin was a French printer, primarily of music. He was active in Paris between about 1549 and his death in 1576. "Described as a bookseller in a document dated November 1540, Du Chemin issued his first printed book in 1541. In 1543 he moved his shop to the rue St-Jacques-de-Latran under the sign of the silver Griffin, the address from which he issued music as well as many books on medicine, grammar, arithmetic, law and Latin literature to the end of his career." (Oxford Music Online).

"During the early 1540's, Du Chemin established himself in Paris as a printer of religious, medical, philosophical and historical texts. Among his publications, for instance, we know of an edition of the Latin Psalter with commentaries by the Italian theologian Marcantonio Flamino (M. Antonii Flamini in Librum Psalmorum brevis explanatio; 1546), François Chappuys’ treatise on cures for the plague (Sommaire de certains et vrays remedes contre la peste; 1545), Polydore Vergil's Latin history of the world (Polydore Vergil Historiographe, a French translation of his De inventoribus rerum libri tres; 1546), and many other works, too. 1 Du Chemin continued this line of work even as he ventured into music printing." (2009, Digital Duchemin Project — Richard Freedman).

"Nicolas Du Chemin, followed by Guillaume Le Bé, would attain renown as pioneering engravers, type-founders, and printers, if only because they were among the first in France to design and manufacture their own types and printing equipment." (Copyright history dot org).

Bohatta 1282; Not in Lacombe.

HBS 68799.

$4,500.

Price: $4,500.00

Item #68799