Boaistuau, Pierre

Histoires Prodigieuses les plus Memorables qui  ayent esté observées, depuis la Nativité de Iesus Christ, jusques à nostre siecle. Paris: Annet Briere for Vincent Sertenas, 1560



4to (8¼ x 6⅛ in.; 210 x 155 mm). Woodcut arms of the dedicatee on title partially hand-colored in tan wash, forty-nine woodcut text illustrations of monsters and prodigious events, decorative woodcut initials; some mostly marginal soiling and staining. Old vellum; backstrip renewed, soiled.

Abbey of Saint Benignus, Dijon (ms. exlibris on title dated 1710) — Librairie Dorbon ainé (bookseller's ticket on rear pastedown)

Bibliotheca Esoterica 384; Caillet 1250; Mortimer French 103; see M. Simonin, Pierre Boaistuau (1982)

First edition, Sertenas issue.

A popular compendium of reports of monstrosities and prodigious events by Boaistuau (d. 1566), a native of Nantes, and secretary to the French ambassador in the east, Jacques de Cambrai. This was an immensely popular genre at a time of religious upheaval and of the discovery of a new continent with unknown species. The monstrosities include both natural physical anomalies and clearly mythical creatures. The prodigies include floods, earthquakes, and new stars, as well as supernatural apparitions.

The publication was simultaneously issued by the three booksellers mentioned in the colophon: Vincent Sertenas, Jean Longis, and Robert Le Mangnier.