The DOCTRINAL OF GOOD SERVANTS. Booklet, small,... Lot 43

The DOCTRINAL OF GOOD SERVANTS. Booklet, small, in-4, bright red jansenist morocco, 5-rib spine, interior roulettes and fillets, gilt edges ( Chambolle-Duru). Bechtel, 240/D-336 // Brunet, II-781 // USTC, 79167. (4f.) / [ ]4 / 26 lines with line spaces, car. goth. / 86 x 132 mm. Third edition of these series of rules that servants must respect with regard to their masters if they want to be good servants. These rules, laid down in 28 stanzas of four verses of eight syllables each, concern obedience, respect for masters, respect for God, honesty, but also conduct at table and in other circumstances of life. Some stanzas concern respect for and obedience to religious rules. The book ends with this stanza: Servans celuy qui gardera And will put in his heart These rules all good he'll have Thus becomes the Varlet maistre Brunet and Bechtel describe four editions, the first of which is incunabula, in Paris, circa 1490-1495, and the other three after 1520. The one presented here was published in Paris around 1510 according to Fairfax Murray, and around 1530 according to Bechtel. It is decorated on the title with a woodcut depicting a master and his servant against a landscape background, and on the verso of the last leaf with another woodcut depicting Christ among the doctors of the law according to Fairfax Murray, and a master and his servants according to the notice on the Lignerolles copy. A very fine copy, finely bound by Chambolle-Duru. Provenance: Fairfax Murray (label, no. 130).