GUISE (Jacques de). Lot n° 16

Le Premier volume des Illustrations de la Gaulle Belgique, antiquitez du pays de Haynnau et de la grand cité de Belges, à présent dicte Bavay. Paris, François Regnault and Galliot du Pré, 1531-1532. 3 volumes in one folio, red morocco, triple cold fillet, number SV gilt in the center, spine decorated with cold boxes, inner lace, gilt edges (Dewatines). First edition of the first and principal chronicle of the county of Hainaut, composed in Latin at the end of the 14th century by the cordelier Jacques de Guise and put into French prose around 1446 by the Picard writer Jean Wauquelin. The French adaptation is sometimes attributed, probably wrongly, to Jacques de Leussach, known as Lessabé, the author of a historical collection on Hainaut published in 1534. The chronicle consists of three volumes, the fourth never having seen the light of day. This magnificent gothic edition of the Chroniques de Hainaut published by François Regnault and Galliot du Pré is printed on two columns, with numerous sieve-ground initials. A beautiful porticoed frame adorns each of the three titles; it is printed in red and black in the first and second volumes. The typographical mark of François Regnault adorns the last leaf of the first volume and that of Galliot du Pré, the last leaf of the third volume. The work is illustrated with three beautiful woodcuts, two of which are full-page: the first (repeated) shows the author presenting his work to Philip the Good, the second represents the author working on his manuscript, and the last one, the king of France at the parliament, topped by a battle scene. A very nice copy bound in red morocco with the figure of an amateur by Felix Dewatines, bookbinder of Lille active between 1838 and 1869. The copy is quoted by Bechtel from a catalog of the Antiquariaat Forum bookshop in Utrecht (cat. 106, February 2000, n°29). Minor spotting on the second board. Fresh interior, despite some rare stains in the third part. Bechtel, G-392 (quoted copy) - Brunet, II, 1836 - Mortimer, n°268 - Moreau, IV, nos. 178 and 440.