BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Le Philocope de Messire Iehan Boccacce Florentin, Contenat l'histoire de Fleury & Blanchefleur... (Paris, D. Janot for) Gilles Corrozet, (February, 24th) 1542.
Folio. VI, CLXXIIII lvs. With 36 woodcuts (one nearly full-page) all surrounded by a varying border (partly decorated with coats of arms), some "lettres fleuries" initials by G. Tory (cf. Mortimer ) and few "Crible " initials. Woodcut printer's device. A magnificent, signed heraldic binding worked in leather marquetry by the famous Paris bookbinder Gruel from the last quarter of the 19th century in an excellent state of preservation. First edition of Sevin's translation. Denys Janot organized this edition under his own name and for various Paris bookshops, whose own signets and sales notes were then imprinted. Thus our specimen bears the Corrozet-signet on the title page (v. Renouard 206) and the note : "On les vend à Paris en la grand Salle du Pa1ais du costé de 1a chapelle de messieurs, en 1a boutique de Gilles Corrozet Libraire." This signet makes the book - which is extremely rare anyhow - a top rarity , not accounted for in the relevant bibliographies / catalogues. The woodcuts derive from Janot's edition of the first books of the "Amadis de Gaula" of 1540 (cf. Brun and Mortimer), the borders partly were made earlier (thus one is dated "1520"). The borders frequently bear foliage ornaments, and a whole series of them shows grotesque faces and heraldic shields. Brun writes about the "Amadis" woodcuts as a whole: " L'Amadis des Gaules dont le premier livre parut en 1540, est orné de vignettes qui offrent au lecteur une suite de charmant petits tableaux. Certaines sont d'un dessin si parfait et d'une taille si adroite qu'on ne peut s'empêcher de songer aux gravures de Lützelburger d'après Holbein. Ici, le style, les proportions des personnages, les physionomies, tout enfin est différent et accuse la main d'un artiste français, mais la mâitrise est presque égale " (p.68), and generally on Janot's and Corrozet's importance (p.64 / 65) : " Ce fut le role de trois imprimeurs, Denis Janot, Etienne Groulleau et Gilles Corrozet, de répandre a profusion, sous un format commode, de petits textes classiques ou des livrets abondamment illustrés. Leurs vignettes élégantes et spirituelles, transmises ou copiées d'atelier en atelier, interprétées par les ciseleurs, les peintres verriers, les émailleurs et les fayenciers, contribuèrent pour une grande part a fixer les nouvelles formules décoratives... ". The lavishly equipped Moroccan leather binding bears in the middle of both covers the coat of arms of Henri IV (1553 -1610) in an oval cartouche with the French heraldic shield (on a blue background) and that of Navarre (on red) together with three crowns: the two small ones representing France and Navarre, and the big one symbolizing the union (v. J. Guigard, Nouvelle Armorial du Bibliophile. Paris 1890. p. 20). The heraldic shields and the small crowns are enclosed by delicate foliage. Crown as well as tendrils are gold-embossed, the colours of the escutcheons are subtly repeated in the big crown. The coats of arms are surrounded by a network of partly geometrical, partly floral and ornamental polychromatic ribbons (in beige, brown, ruby and red) in Grolier-style, ending at top and bottom in a bigger grotesque, and below four corner vignettes in a smaller one each (in beige the bigger, in brown the smaller ones). The fields between the stripes are gold-embossed with "Crible" dots. The cover decor is predominantly worked in leather marquetry .This binding in mock-historical style follows the tradition of "reliure adaptée au texte", a speciality of the Gruel studio (cf. R. Devauchelle, La reliure en France de ses origines a nos jours. Paris 1961. Vol. II, pp.34ff.).The above term would have to be extended with the top products from this workshop to "reliure adaptée au texte et aux illustrations", as in these cases the bookbinder extended his historical approach to elements of the artistic illustration of the book: Thus in our example the "Crible" - initials correlate with the corresponding cover decor, Henri's IV coats-of-arms correspond with the (fancy) heraldry of the woodcut borders, and this correlation continues right through to details of motif in the Bourbon fleur-de-lis or the crowns. The covers show floral corner vignettes unfolding in a fan shape, and these also reappear in the lines of several borders; the same applies to the grotesques and the floral elements. Thus the book with its illustrations and the cover binding form an integral artistic unity.- Ex-libris. Title with old and very faded entries. Throughout evenly somewhat browned, in places with faint mildew or brown spots. Some woodcuts slightly paler in imprint. Few sheets with surface irregularities in the bottom outer corner, due to the process of paper-making. Altogether a very clean specimen of this rarity. IA 120.290 (only 7 copies!); NUC 62/473 (3 more copies); Mortimer (French Books) 105; Brunet I, 1014 and Suppl. I, 142; Cioranescu 20705; BMSTC (French Books) 71; Omont (Janot) 125; Brun S. 158 (if there is mentioned a printer it is only Janot).
Euro35000
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