A catalogue of medieval literature, especially of the romances of chivalry, and books relating to the customs, costume, art, and pageantry of the middle ages.

  • Bernard Quaritch Ltd
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A catalogue of medieval literature, especially of the romances of chivalry, and books relating to the customs, costume, art, and pageantry of the middle ages. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    55/100 (page 49)
    251 (GUYRON LE COURTOYS Anecquesla deuise des armes de tous les cheualiers de la table ronde), folio, First Edition, gotf){c letter, with several large woodcuts, a wonderfully large, sound and fine copy (350 X 241 millimetres), old calf Imprime a paris pour Anthoine verard {about 1504) 60 0 This was the first issue by V6rard, as appears from the absence of a title, and the absence of a leaf of prologue. Here the preliminary leaves are seven in number (the first, a blank, having been torn away); of which, six leaves (a ii—[a vii] contain the table, and the seventh has a large woodcut on the obverse, the reverse blank.—(In the second issue, these preliminary leaves were reprinted in smaller characters. The large woodcut was placed on the reverse of folio 1, and the words of intitulation printed on the obverse; the table occupied leaves 2-7 ; and on the eighth leaf a prologue was added.) In the colophon Verard describes his house as “ devant la rue neuve Notre Dame,” and as he only began to do so in September, 1503, the Gyron cannot be anterior, although Brunet says “ vers 1501.” Didot’s copy, with the title and another leaf in facsimile, fetched 1300 fr. plus auctioneer’s commission. The Yemeniz copy, a fine one, sold for about £240. A dirty and wormed copy fetched 1500 fr. at Paris in 1876. Guiron was the last of the original Arthurian romances, and appeared about 1220. H6He de Borron was its author, and a great deal of his own invention will probably be found in it. He was evidently infiuenced by a reaction against the free and easy life of the former knights when he undertook to write the story of a Pure Knight. Guirin or Gwirin means pure in Cymric, and the hero who bears the name in this interesting story proves himself worthy of the name. 252 MELIADUS DE LEONNOYS. Ou present Volume sent contenus les nobles faietz darmes du vaillant roy Meliadus de Leonnoys: Ensemble plusienrs autres nobles proesses de Cbeualerie, faictes tant par le roy Artus .... folio, gotl^tc letter, title printed in red and blade within a woodcut border ; fine copy in blue morocco extra, gilt edges, by Padeloup Paris, Galliot du Pre, 1528 f2 0 253 On present Volume sent contenus les nobles faietz darmes du vaillant roy Meliadus de Leonnoys : small folio, goti^tc letter, with woodcut border to title, a beautiful copy, from the private library of King Louis Philippe {Palais Royal), with the stamp on the title; red morocco super-extra, gilt marbled edges {by Bauzonnet-Trautz) Paris {Denis lanot), 1532 48 0 Meliadus was the father of Tristan, but the romance upon the son preceded by a long time that upon the father, and the latter contains a different account of Tristan’s mother and his birth. According to the prologue of the volume, and to the usually received accounts, the story of Meliadus was compiled by Eusticien of Pisa (the writer who took down, in barbarous French, from Marco Polo’s dictation, the first edition of the latter’s travels) at the request of Edward I of England, about 1270 to 1275. The prince on his way to the Crusades is said to have left his copies of the Eound Table Eomances in the hands of Eusticien, giving him the commission to harmonize and complete them—a task beyond the honest writer’s power. The fifteenth-century editor who modernized the book for the press, complains of the confused and erroneous system on which Eusticien worked, but which it was impossible then to alter. The above edition is headed on every alternate page ‘‘ le premier volume,” but there is no other, and the work is complete in itself; the error arising from the circumstance that Meliadus and Guiron le Courtois were generally written together in one manuscript. The preface of Guiron was also frequently put in front of the Meliadus—as is the case in this very edition—and the authorship of Meliadus thus credited wrongly to H61ie de Borron. 254 YSAIE LE TRISTE. Fil3 Tristan de leonois, iadis cheualier de la table ronde, et de la royne Izeut de Cornouaille. Ensemble les nobles pronesses de cbeuallerie faictes par Marc lexille filz dudit Isaye. Histoyre moult plaisante et delectable, nouuellement Imprimee a Paris, small folio, got|[ic Rtter, with woodcuts, a fine copy, blue morocco extra, gilt edges, by J. Wright, with Utterson’s initials on the sides Paris, Pierre Vidoue pour Galliot du pre (1522) 50 0 The eaeest and finest edition of this celebrated Eomance. The Solar copy fetched 2000 francs. Tronc the Dwarf is the most noteworthy figure in the composition. The author of the romance is unknown; it was written probably about the beginning of the fifteenth century. 0 0 0 0