Jacobus de Voragine, La legende doree en francoys, Lyon, 1518, seventeenth-century vellum, Croxteth Library copy
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December 10, 04:10 PM GMT
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4,000 - 6,000 GBP
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Description
JACOBUS DE VORAGINE. La legende doree en francoys nouvellement imprimee. Et admendee. Lyon: Jean La Place for Étienne Gueynard, 1518
A rare French edition of the Legenda aurea, written ca 1270 and translated into French by Jehan de Vignay. Gueynard's publications are notable for their illustrations and ornamental woodcut borders, thought by Baudrier to be the work of a single artist, the "Maitre au nombril", whom he identified as Guillaume Leroy.
The later binding contains a paper label with the title in manuscript, designed to fold out and be visible when the book is shelved with the fore-edge out; this practice was predominantly seen in England in the later seventeenth century (Graham Pollard, "Changes in the style of bookbindings, 1550-1830", The Library series 5, 11 (1956), 71-94).
Folio (244 x 168 mm). Gothic type, 46 lines plus headline. collation: a-z8 a-c8 A-T8 V4: 364 leaves. Title-page printed in red and black with a large cut of a man kneeling in prayer in front of a cross and surrounded by a historiated woodcut border, 9 other large woodcuts within a decorative border, a further 10 fine historiated or ornamental borders, numerous small cuts of Saints, many initials illuminated in yellow.
binding: Seventeenth-century vellum (251 x 182 mm), manuscript title to spine, plain edges, paper label with title in ink pasted to recto of upper endleaf and folded over to run up fore-edge, red sprinkled edges. (Slight worming to upper board.)
provenance: Early modern ownership inscription of ?"Thomas James" to verso of final text leaf — John Strang (1584-1654), principal of Glasgow University, ownership inscriptions to front free endpaper and title-page (dated 1639) — Molyneux, family library (Croxteth Hall), armorial ex libris — Sotheby's, Continental printed books, manuscripts and music, London, 28-29 May 1992, lot 49. acquisition: Purchased in 1992 from Robin Halwas, London. references: USTC 14584; Bechtel J-42