Simon BOUGOUINC. Lespinette du ieune prince Conquerant... Lot 13

[Simon BOUGOUINC]. Lespinette du ieune prince Conquerant Le royaulme de bonne renommee Nouvellement Imprime a Paris. Cum privilegio. In-folio, lemon morocco, large Renaissance-style black calf mosaic interlacing decoration, 5-nerve spine decorated in the same style, prairie-green morocco lining with wide small-iron lace and Mello library armorial bookplate in the center, double endpapers, gilt edges ( Niedrée-1844). Bechtel, 96/B-355 // Brunet, II-1062 // Cioranescu, 4534 // Fairfax Murray, 61 // Macfarlane, 90 // Tchemerzine-Scheler, II-437 // USTC, 8325. (124f.) / a-v6, x4 / 43 lines on 2 columns, gothic car / 190 x 269 mm. Extremely rare first edition of a dialogue consisting of nearly 20,000 verses, most of them ten syllables long. The author, Simon Bougouinc or Bougoinc, a 16th-century French poet and prose writer, was valet de chambre to King Louis XII. He translated several of Lucian's treatises, wrote plays and this allegorical poem, which he signed on the last page with an acrostic entitled Le nom de l'auteur en manière de supplication where the first letters read vertically Symon Bougouync. The poem recounts the author's encounter with a young prince taken by lovesickness. What follows is a long, adventurous journey that touches on a wide range of subjects, including love and virtue, of course, but also advice on life and education. They visit the bedside of the prince's father, who is dying and advises his son on society and the division of power between the nobility, the clergy and the laborers. Their steps then lead them to the Orchard of the World, where they encounter youth and madness before embarking on a ship, passing the perilous sea where the place of salvation lies, and finding on the seashore a hermit named the father of virtues and a page named good company. Without going into detail, the adventure continues with the conquest of the city of nobility by the prince and duke of brave love. duke of brave love, the coronation of the prince who becomes king of the kingdom of good fame, and the crowning of the queen named the lady of good government or Raison. The work is lavishly illustrated with woodcuts, including the title with a large grotesque, 45 figures in the text, 15 of which take up the width of the page and 30 smaller ones, numerous initials and the printer's mark on the last leaf. A superb copy, finely bound by Niedrée, a Parisian bookbinder who was awarded a silver medal in 1844 for his Renaissance-style bindings. bindings in the style of the Renaissance... (of) such accuracy of design... (that they) surpass the richest bindings in the superb libraries of Henri II, Cardinal deFarnerie, Henri III, Grolier and de Thou. Minor rubbing to one hinge and 2 places on spine with epidermis, one stain to second board. 2 leaves (f2-f5) shorter in lower margin by 7 mm. Provenance: Armand Bertin (ex-libris, absent from 1854 sale), Baron Achille Seillière (supra-libris, II, May 5-14, 1890, no. 449) and Fairfax Murray (label, no. 61).