FRANÇOIS Ier. Lot n° 10

[Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts]. Ordonnances royaulx sur le faict de la justice et abbreviation des proces par tout le royaulme de France. S.l., 1539. In-4, pink cardboard (modern binding). Very rare edition of this capital legislative text prescribing the use of the "langage maternel françois" in all official acts, published the same year of its promulgation. This unknown gothic edition of Bechtel comprises 24 ff.n.ch. (sign. a-f4), with the title in round letters decorated with a wood with the arms of France. According to Roger Pierrot, the ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, article lvi of which orders "to pronounce and dispatch all acts in the language of France", gave "a definitive impulse to the use of French, in place of Latin, as an administrative and legal language", ten years before Joachim du Bellay consecrated French as a poetic language in his Défense et illustration. It was enacted by François I between August 10 and 25, 1539 and registered by the Parliament of Paris on September 6. The bookseller Galliot du Pré obtained a royal privilege, reproduced at the head of the work, to publish the 192 articles from August 28, 1539. Handwritten annotations of the time. Repaired staining at the head of the leaves, sometimes slightly touching the text, angular repair to leaf c4, small hole to the last leaf, some foxing. In French in the text, n°45 (for the edition of Galliot du Pré).