HERNANDEZ DE SAN PEDRO attribué à Diego Le Débat de deux gentilzhommes Espagnols sur le faict d’amour : l’ung nommé Vasquiran, regrette l’amye, que mort lui a tollue après l’avoir épousée, & l’aultre nommé Flamvan vouldroit mourir pour la sienne, à la charge d’en jouyr par espouse ou aultrement.

B. Croce, Di un antico romanzo spagnuolo relativo alla storia di Napoli. La Question di Amor, Naples, 1894 ; Brun, p. 167 ; Palau 243468 ; Brunet, II, 548 : “livre rare” ; Charles d’Orléans, Ballades et Rondeaux. Edition du manuscrit 25458 du fonds français de la BnF, ed. Jean-Claude Mühletaler, Paris, Lettres gothiques, Le livre de poche, 1992 ; the poems by Charles d’Orléans are unrecorded by Lachèvre, Bibliographie des recueils collectifs de poésies du XVIe siècle, Paris, Champion, 1922.

First edition of the French translation. Famous sentimental Spanish novel to which are added two ballads by Charles d’Orléans : Veuillez vos yeulx emprisonner, and C’est grand peril de regarder. The book opens with a fine title printed in within a large architectual wood cut border, the printer’s wood cut vignette is on the last leaf. The book is furthermore illustrated with 31 woodcut vignettes and ornate initials.

This text, attributed by some scholars to the Spanish writer Diego Hernandez de San Pedro (1437-1498), is the anonymous translation of Question de amor et dos enamorados, written in dialogue form or letters, in prose or verse form, first published in Valencia in 1513. The numerous historic details of the action happening in Naples have all been studied by Benedetto Croce. With two poems by Charles d’Orléans printed at the end These two famous Ballades, are amongst the oldest known, written before his long imprisonment in England (1415-1440) : Veuillez vos yeulx emprisonner, and C’est grand peril de regarder (f. 79). Although the form does not follow the original manuscript (BnF Ms. 25458), published by Chalvet in 1803, these are indeed Ballades 2 and 3, previously included in all known manuscripts as well as in the first printed books of poetry of Charles d’Orléans, namely : Jardin de Plaisance (1501), Le Triomphe de l’Amant vert by Jean Lemaire de Belges (1535), and Chasse et le Depart d’Amours (printed by Antoine Vérard in 1509). The lesson of the Débat follows precisely the edition given by Vérard (folio R2).

Magnificent copy, exquisitely bound by the end of the 17th century in blue morocco

The cipher on this copy – previously attributed to the duc de Sully, Minister under King Henri IV- has recently been identified by Isabelle de Conihout and Pascal Ract-Madoux, as explained in the catalogue of the exhibition held in Chantilly in 2002 (Reliures françaises du XVIIe siècle. Chefs-d’oeuvre du Musée Condé, Paris, 2002). The present binding is to be counted for the group of bindings, now attributed by both scholars to the group of “reliures au grand W” (numbers 33 and 34 of the catalogue), dated between 1695-1700 and of about a dozen examples are known today. According to the researchers these binding are now part of they call “groupe 4”, predominantly bound for Jérôme Duvivier, d’Antoine Leriche, René-François marquis de La Vieuville or other important collectors of the time, also called “les curieux”.

“C’est dans le milieu des “curieux” parisiens, à l’extrême fin du XVIIe siècle, qu’ont fait leur apparition des reliures spécialement destinées à recouvrir des livres rares. Ces reliures ont en commun deux caractéristiques : elles ont été exécutées exclusivement sur des livres français ou traduits en français” (op. cit., p. 64). Of great rarity: no copy at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Catalogue collectif de France indicates one single institutional copy (Versailles BM).

Small restorations on to the title page, else very fine.

Provenance : old notes on fly-leaves (no. 530 fly leaf verso as well the price 19# and numbers 20 à 24 on the fly leaf at end; Charles Butler of Warren Wood (book plate) – Bernard Malle (his discreet stamp).