GIRLS' DOCTRINAL FOR LEARNING TO BE BIĒ SAIGES. Small... Lot 46

GIRLS' DOCTRINAL FOR LEARNING TO BE BIĒ SAIGES. Small booklet in-4, lemon jansenist morocco, 5-rib spine, interior lace, gilt edges ( Cuzin). Bechtel, 242/D353 // Brunet, Supplément I-411 // Fairfax Murray, 129-374 // USTC, 38719. (4f.) / A4 / 22 lines, goth. car. / 88 x 125 mm. Very rare edition of this poem giving advice to young girls on how they should conduct themselves in life. In the previous entry, we described at length this 14th-century work which inspired Chancer, and of which there are many editions under slightly different names: Doctrinal des filles, Doctrinal des filles a marier, Doctrinal des filles à elles très utiles, Doctrinal des filles pour apprendre a estre bien saiges, ou encore Doctrinal des filles utile et proffitable... All these editions are rare, and only a few copies are known to exist. They all contain the poem of 34 quatrains of 8 syllables, and some of them end with Les X commandemens de la loy in 20 verses and les commandemens de saincte esglise in 10 lines. This edition must have been printed in Lyon or Geneva around 1525-1530, and is unknown to Baudrier. Comparing this copy with the previous one (no. 45 in this sale), we noted a few differences in certain verses. In our edition, for example: Girl to make good treasure Craīte ayez devãt les vieulx Pour: Girl to make good treasure Craīte have before your eyes Or even Fille ne preste vos bouche En secret a nully qui soit For: Fille ne prestez vos bouche In a secret place Our edition does not contain the commandments of the law or those of the church. It features a woodcut of a young girl holding a bouquet of flowers on the first leaf, and 2 small woodcuts of a sibyl on the last leaf. Fairfax Murray, to whom this copy belonged, indicates in his notice that these last two woods were already used for another edition published in Geneva, by Köln, around 1525, which he describes under number 374 of his catalog: Merveilles advenir en cestuy vingt et sis. revelle par les dieux... This last edition is known only from a single copy, now in the Bourdel library, which we shall present in part three. A very fine copy of this bibliophilic rarity. Top margin a little trimmed on title. Provenance: Fairfax Murray (label, no. 129) and Henri Bordes (bookplate).