Valerius Maximus, Dictorum factorumque memorabilium exempla, Lyon, 1561, Parisian polychrome calf armorial binding for Jacques de Malenfant, attributed to Claude Picques

16mo (120 x 75mm). Roman and italic types, 29 lines. collation: a-z⁸ A-K⁸ L⁶: 270 leaves. Woodcut printer’s device on title, ruled in red. (Some browning.)

binding: Contemporary Parisian polychrome calf armorial binding for Jacques de Malenfant, attributed to Claude Picques, richly gilt, outer frame composed of 2 gilt fillets painted black, large arabesque gilt cornerpieces with leafy forms painted blue and black over hatched ground, in centre large plaquette cartouche containing arms surrounded by leafy forms, fleur-de-lis, and buds painted blue and white against hatched ground and with finials above and below composed of open leaf and bud and leaf tools painted white and black, traces of 2 pairs of red fabric ties, spine with 4 full bands, compartments with open leaf tools painted black, edges gilt and gauffered to a floral design, mask in center of fore-edge, cloth box. (Head and tail and 2 bands restored, upper joint cracking.)

provenance: Jacques de Malenfant, seigneur de Preyssac (c.1530–c.1603), arms on binding, inscription "Iacobi Malifantii 1566" and motto "Horat. Paulu(m) sepultae distat inertiae celata virtus. Pressac" (Horace, Odes IV, 9) on endleaf — Maurice Delestre & Adolphe Labitte, Catalogue des livres rares et curieux la plupart sur grand papier de Hollande ou sur papier de Chine, composant la bibliothèque du Château de N***, Paris, 30 November-2 December 1876, lot 501 — Ader Picard Tajan & Pierre et Jean Chrétien with Claude Guérin, Précieux livres & manuscrits provenant des Successions Legueltel et à divers amateurs, Paris, 14 November 1979, lot 155, FF 7100 — Michel Wittock (1936-2020), book label, sale, Christie's Paris, Collection Michel Wittock. Troisième partie, Reliures françaises de la Renaissance, Paris, 7 October 2005, lot 49. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: Mirjam Foot, "A binding for Jacques de Malenfant, c. 1560-66" in Studies in the History of Bookbinding (Aldershot, 1993), p.339; Anthony Hobson & Paul Culot, Italian and French 16th-century bookbindings (Brussels, 1991), no. 57 (c); Paul Culot, "La reliure en Italie et en France" in Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Musea Nostra - 38 (Brussels, 1996), p.34; USTC 153107; Baudrier, VIII, 303