ROJAS (Fernando de). Lot n° 32

Celestine, en laquelle est traicte des deceptions des serviteurs envers leurs maistres & des macquerelles envers les amoureux translate dytalien en francois. Paris, Galliot du Pré, [1527]. In-8 of [174] ff. (out of 182), half vellum with corners, smooth spine decorated (modern binding). Extremely rare first edition of the first French translation of La Celestina. This anonymous translation was based on the original Spanish text, not on the Italian translation by Alfonso de Ordoñez, from which the French translator nevertheless made some borrowings. Originally published in 1499, in Burgos, under the title Comedia de Calisto y Melibea, this very famous play was for a long time the most universally distributed Spanish book after Quixote. Beautiful illustrated gothic edition, printed by Nicolas Cousteau on behalf of Galliot du Pré, with the title in red and black and 40 (out of 42) woodcuts in the text, drawn in pairs (except those of the title and f. X5). These large woodcuts, often repeated, represent the characters of the play, surmounted by a phylactery indicating their name. Some are taken from Vérard's Terence. Copy of the edition A, with the mention on the title : translate dytalien en francois, which was deleted in the edition B. It is incomplete of 8 ff., namely a2-a5, D2 (illus. of two woodcuts), Y6-Y8 (colophon with printer's mark); lacks the lower corner of the title (two letters deleted in the address); a few leaves unbound; small marginal wormholes without affecting the text. Bechtel, R-225 - Brun, 283 - Moreau, III, n°1322 - Brunet, I, 1721 - Rothschild, IV, n°3059 - G. J. Brault, Celestine, a critical edition of the first French translation (1527), Detroit, 1963