FROISSART (Jean). Lot n° 11

Le Premier [- Quart] volume de messire Jehan Froissart, qui traicte des choses dignes de memoire advenues tant es pays de France, Angleterre, Flandres, Espaigne que Escoce, et autres lieux circonvoisins. Paris, Jean Petit, 1530. 4 volumes in one folio, stiff vellum, smooth spine decorated with the title in black calligraphy (Modern binding). Sixth edition of Froissart's chronicles, sumptuously printed by Antoine Couteau. The text is printed in gothic on two columns and decorated with floral initials on a sifted background. It includes two interesting woodcuts: the first represents the assault of the English against the citadel of Bergerac (I, 55) and the second a lord on horseback accompanied by his halberdiers (III, 1). A homogeneous copy of the edition by Jehan Petit, who financed the edition in association with Galliot du Pré, Poncet Le Preux and François Regnault. The title of the four volumes is decorated with the same engraved frame with his figure (the first one is printed in red and black) and his typographical mark is printed at the end of the first two volumes. Froissart's account relates the events that took place between 1326 and 1400, that is, from the beginning of the Hundred Years' War to the middle of the reign of Charles VI. "His chronicles offer the aristocratic class a vast picture of chivalric society, its acts, festivals, rituals, dreams and concerns. For us, this book remains an essential source of knowledge of the fourteenth century" (Guy Bechtel). Missing the last leaf of the text (IV, 80), very skilfully redone with a pen; repairs in the margins of the first six leaves (the last one doubled); the leaf bearing the mark at the end of the second volume (PP4) is bound at the end of the book. Scattered spotting and staining, title partially faded on spine. Adams, F-165 - Bechtel, F-187 - Tchemerzine, III, 382-383 - Brunet, II, 1405 - Mortimer, n°238 - Fairfax Murray, n°180 (vol. I only).