RUDIMENTUM NOVITIORUM, in French: La Mer des histoires . Paris: Pierre Le Rouge, July 1488, February 1488/9. Two volumes. Royal 2° (414 x 300mm). Collation: π 4 â 8 a-z 8 \\i 8 aa-gg 8 hh 10 \\e\\e 8 (π title, π introduction, â chapter table, a1 part I, hh9v colophon, hh10 blank); A-X 8 AA-MM 8 NN 10 \\e\\e 8 â ê 8 î ô 6 (A1r part II, NN10 blank, \\e\\e table, â1r martyrologium, ô6v colophon and device). 262 leaves (of 270, lacking π1,3,4, i6,7 (map of the world), z1,2 (map of the Holy Land), and without final blank hh10); 299 leaves (of 310, lacking A1,2, S1, \\e\\e8, quire î, and without blank NN10), quire \\e\\e bound at the end of the first volume. 50 lines and printed foliation, double column. Type: 3:236G (titles and headings), 2:117B (text), 4:84B, Haebler 4:64B, 87G, 70G (inscriptions). 383 woodcuts, 2 full-page woodcuts, 2 maps, 65 genealogical stemmae, coloured by an early hand, woodcut borders, historiated and ornamental woodcut initials, and printer's device (Renouard 637), all COLOURED BY AN EARLY HAND (without the maps, a full-page cut on S1 and the cuts on the missing pages noted above). Initial spaces with guide-letters. Large initials in gold on pink ground with blue border, other initials and paragraph marks supplied in red or blue, text opening on a1r ( In principio creauit deus celum et terram ) in red, line-filler in red, capital strokes in yellow. (An occasional tear repaired without loss, fos. a2, i2,3 and A5,6 remargined, with slight loss to lower border of a2.) 19th-century calf over thick paper boards, blindstamped to a 15th-century style and incorporating the Arenberg supralibros (partly restored), by Claessens. Provenance : several contemporary marginal additions in French; Duc de Arenberg (supralibros). FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH and one of the most extensively illustrated French incunables. La Mer des histoires is a free translation of the Rudimentum novitiorum , first printed at Lübeck in 1475. An encyclopedic history of the world, purportedly written for the benefit of young clerics, the Rudimentum combines secular and ecclesiastical history, ancient history and pagan mythology; twenty-nine Aesop's Fables are incorporated into the "Fifth Age". The French translation contains additional material on the kings of France and is accompanied by a martyrology by Usardus. Neither author of the Latin work nor translator of the French edition is known. The printer of the French edition, Pierre Le Rouge, clearly knew the Lübeck Latin edition, which it follows broadly in arrangement and illustration. Manfred von Arnim has concisely summarized its illustrative antecedents, which include Vérard's Grandes Heures , and Levet's Maître Pierre Pathelin . Several of the smaller woodcuts found in Du Prè's Book of Hours, printed 14 Febrary 1489/90, are copied from the Mer des histoires , rather than vice versa ( Schäfer 294). New to Le Rouge's series are some historical scenes and his extensive use of delicate borders and woodcut initials. A large copy of a fine example of French printing. C 3991; BMC VIII, 109 (IC. 40017); Goff R-346; CIBN R-221; Claudin I, 458-71. (2)
RUDIMENTUM NOVITIORUM, in French: La Mer des histoires . Paris: Pierre Le Rouge, July 1488, February 1488/9. Two volumes. Royal 2° (414 x 300mm). Collation: π 4 â 8 a-z 8 \\i 8 aa-gg 8 hh 10 \\e\\e 8 (π title, π introduction, â chapter table, a1 part I, hh9v colophon, hh10 blank); A-X 8 AA-MM 8 NN 10 \\e\\e 8 â ê 8 î ô 6 (A1r part II, NN10 blank, \\e\\e table, â1r martyrologium, ô6v colophon and device). 262 leaves (of 270, lacking π1,3,4, i6,7 (map of the world), z1,2 (map of the Holy Land), and without final blank hh10); 299 leaves (of 310, lacking A1,2, S1, \\e\\e8, quire î, and without blank NN10), quire \\e\\e bound at the end of the first volume. 50 lines and printed foliation, double column. Type: 3:236G (titles and headings), 2:117B (text), 4:84B, Haebler 4:64B, 87G, 70G (inscriptions). 383 woodcuts, 2 full-page woodcuts, 2 maps, 65 genealogical stemmae, coloured by an early hand, woodcut borders, historiated and ornamental woodcut initials, and printer's device (Renouard 637), all COLOURED BY AN EARLY HAND (without the maps, a full-page cut on S1 and the cuts on the missing pages noted above). Initial spaces with guide-letters. Large initials in gold on pink ground with blue border, other initials and paragraph marks supplied in red or blue, text opening on a1r ( In principio creauit deus celum et terram ) in red, line-filler in red, capital strokes in yellow. (An occasional tear repaired without loss, fos. a2, i2,3 and A5,6 remargined, with slight loss to lower border of a2.) 19th-century calf over thick paper boards, blindstamped to a 15th-century style and incorporating the Arenberg supralibros (partly restored), by Claessens. Provenance : several contemporary marginal additions in French; Duc de Arenberg (supralibros). FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH and one of the most extensively illustrated French incunables. La Mer des histoires is a free translation of the Rudimentum novitiorum , first printed at Lübeck in 1475. An encyclopedic history of the world, purportedly written for the benefit of young clerics, the Rudimentum combines secular and ecclesiastical history, ancient history and pagan mythology; twenty-nine Aesop's Fables are incorporated into the "Fifth Age". The French translation contains additional material on the kings of France and is accompanied by a martyrology by Usardus. Neither author of the Latin work nor translator of the French edition is known. The printer of the French edition, Pierre Le Rouge, clearly knew the Lübeck Latin edition, which it follows broadly in arrangement and illustration. Manfred von Arnim has concisely summarized its illustrative antecedents, which include Vérard's Grandes Heures , and Levet's Maître Pierre Pathelin . Several of the smaller woodcuts found in Du Prè's Book of Hours, printed 14 Febrary 1489/90, are copied from the Mer des histoires , rather than vice versa ( Schäfer 294). New to Le Rouge's series are some historical scenes and his extensive use of delicate borders and woodcut initials. A large copy of a fine example of French printing. C 3991; BMC VIII, 109 (IC. 40017); Goff R-346; CIBN R-221; Claudin I, 458-71. (2)
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