ERASME Les Apophthegmes, c’est à dire promptz, subtilz et sententieulx ditz de plusieurs roys, chefz d’armées, philosophes et autres grans personnaiges tant grecz que latins

Moreau, V, 1729 ; not in Adams or at the British Libary.

Second revised and corrected edition of Antoine Macault’s French translation, printed by Charlotte Guillard, one of the first female printers, who ran the ‘Au Soleil d’or’ workshop.

The original Latin edition had appeared in Basel, with Froben, in 1531. Compiled for the young prince William of Cleves (1516-1592), Erasmus’ Apophthegmata consisted of thousands of sayings and anecdotes drawn from Greek and Latin literature and intended for the moral education of the future sovereign, who married Jeanne d’Albret, niece of François I, on 14 June 1541.

This edition opens with the privilege (dated 11 October 1538), followed by the dedication to King François I and two versified addresses to readers by Clément Marot, a close friend of Antoine Macault, including a dizain on the verso of the privilege and an huitain in the colophon. Antoine Macault only translated the first five books of the Apophthegmata: the rest of the text was not published until 1553, by another translator.

Extremely rare edition printed by Charlotte Guillard (1480?-1557), an outstanding figure of the French Renaissance.

Born around 1480 to parents of unknown profession, Charlotte Guillard married Berthold Remboldt in 1502, one of the Paris prototypographers, who was associated with Ulrich Gehring at the time. The printing workshop was then located on rue de la Sorbonne under the Soleil d’Or sign. When Gering ceased his activities in 1508, the couple moved to rue Saint Jacques.

After Remboldt’s death, Charlotte Guillard took over the running of the printing works before remarrying in 1520 to Claude Chevallon, a bookseller specialising in humanist editions, whose catalogue lists authors such as Erasmus, Pacien of Barcelona and Hilaire de Poitiers. Widowed again in 1537, she continued to run the Soleil d’Or workshop on her own until her death in 1557.

“Charlotte Guillard est une figure exceptionnelle de la Renaissance française. Originaire du Maine, elle mène à Paris une carrière brillante dans la typographie. Veuve tour à tour des imprimeurs Berthold Rembolt et Claude Chevallon, elle administre en maîtresse femme l’atelier du Soleil d’Or pendant près de vingt ans, de 1537 à 1557. Sous sa direction, l’entreprise accapare le marché de l’édition juridique et des Pères de l’Église, publiant des éditions savantes préparées par quelques-uns des plus illustres humanistes parisiens (Antoine Macault, Jacques Toussain, Jean Du Tillet, Guillaume Postel…). Associant dans un même projet intellectuel les théologiens les plus conservateurs et les lettrés les plus épris de nouveauté, sa production témoigne de la vivacité des débats qui agitent les milieux intellectuels au siècle des Réformes” (cesr-cnrs).

USTC locates only eight institutional copies worldwide of this edition (1 in Belgium, 3 in France, 1 in Italy, and 3 in the United States: Chicago University; Yale, Beinecke; Washington, Folger) and none in the United Kingdom.

Very light occasional marginal waterstain, else a fine copy.

Provenance : Fillastre (contemporary signature on the title).