[Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun] | Le Roman de la Rose, [Geneva or Lyons, c.1481], first printed edition of the most important medieval French vernacular poem, Étienne Baluze's copy

Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun

Le Roman de la Rose. [Geneva: Jean Croquet or Lyons: Gaspard Ortuin and Pierre Bouttlier, c.1481]

Chancery folio (207 x 282mm). COLLATION: a–x⁸ y–z⁶: 179 leaves (of 180: textually complete, but lacking a1 preliminary blank). Gothic Rotunda, type 1:101/102G, text in 2 columns, 34-35 lines. Ruled in red throughout, initial letter of each line highlighted in yellow ink, numerous red and blue initials two lines high, one large floral illuminated initial on purple ground, eight lines high; 91 column wide woodcuts (one coloured), two large woodcuts (a2r and e2v), woodcut on a2r coloured; nineteenth-century red morocco with dentelle borders and gilt edges by F. Bedford, washed, marginal worming, light staining througout, initial leaf slightly darkened, marks of usage throughout.

THE EARLIEST PRINTED EDITION OF PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT MEDIEVAL POEM WRITTEN IN THE FRENCH VERNACULAR, A REMARKABLE TEXTUALLY COMPLETE COPY, VANISHINGLY RARE AT AUCTION. We can trace just two other copies of this edition offered at auction in over one hundred years, both of which were textually incomplete: the Peckover copy, lacking 4 text leaves, sold Sotheby's, 7 November 1951, lot 498, and the Sir J.A. Brooke copy, lacking 2 text leaves (sold Sotheby's, 31 May 1921, lot 894). Therefore, the present volume appears to be the only textually complete copy to appear at auction in over a century.

The definite identification of the publisher as well as the workshop responsible for the woodcuts is still debated, with scholarship favouring either the workshop of Jean Croquet in Geneva or Gaspard Ortuin and Pierre Bouttlier in Lyons. The approximately 80 woodcuts (91 with duplicates) contained in this copy provided the model for the subsequent early editions. While the woodcuts seem minimal and clearly reference earlier illustration-traditions of vernacular works, the woodblocks were produced especially for the Roman de la Rose and relate directly and cleverly to the text – which is not a given in this period due to the tendency to re-use and re-cycle woodblocks in different workshops. The first two contemporarily coloured woodcuts and elegant gold initial manifest the close relationship between manuscript and print during the 15th century and elevate this copy among its peers.

The Roman de la Rose can rightly stake its claim as the great canonical text of courtly love of the Middle Ages. Initiated by Guillaume de Lorris, around 1230, the Roman was only concluded forty-five years later by Jean de Meun who added more than 17,000 verses – fashioning new characters and extending the allegories created by de Lorris. The text survives in more than 300 known manuscripts, and went through seven incunable editions. The work spurred controversy, due to its reductionist depiction of women as seductresses, and inspired countless literary ripostes by leading writers of the time, among them Christine de Pizan. Chaucer is known to have been familiar with the text of the poem in the French vernacular, and part of a Middle English translation is thought to be his work.

The present copy is notable for bearing the ownership inscription of Étienne Baluze (1630–1718), the renowned French scholar and historiographer, who worked as librarian to the statesman and bibliophile Jean-Baptiste Colbert, and subsequently to Colbert's son, the Marquis de Seignelay. The same Latin ownership inscription ("Stephanus Baluzius Tutelensis") appears in a copy of the 1486 Mainz edition of Breydenbach's Peregrinatio in terram sanctam, held in the Brotherton Library.

The present copy was evidently acquired by John Jacob Astor III in 1883 from the Mayfair bookdealer Ellis & White. The entry from the 1883 Ellis & White catalogue, annotated by Astor, is tipped onto an endpaper, and a letter of 24 February 1883 addressed to Astor by the firm's proprietor F.S. Ellis, preserved in Astor's 1528 Castiglione (see lot 89) conveys the bookseller's hopes that "the Roman de la Rose will have reached you safely by this time". In addition to the present volume, the Astor family also had a finely illuminated mid-fourteenth century manuscript on vellum of the Roman de la Rose (sold Sotheby's, 21 June 1988, lot 51). F.S. Ellis, a friend of the pre-Raphaelites, had a particular interest in this great medieval French poem, editing and translating it during his retirement from the book trade.

PROVENANCE:

Étienne Baluze (1630–1718), renowned scholar, historiographer, and librarian to Jean-Baptise Colbert: ownership inscription to title-page ("Stephanus Baluzius Tutelensis"); bought by J.J. Astor III (1822–1890) from Ellis & White, New Bond Street in 1883: excerpt from catalogue tipped onto front free endpaper

LITERATURE:

ISTC ir003070000 (listing 14 institutional copies); USTC 765407; Goff R307; Hillard 965; Aquilon 340; Coq 474; Madsen 1893; Borm 1708; BMC VIII 367; GW 11854; Bourdillon, A1