Louenge Beaulte Dames (1 results)

Sole Witness to this edition. THIS ANONYMOUS CONTEMPORARY VIEW OF LATE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN WOMEN has three parts. It praises women's virtues, their character and their bodies. The first section has twenty-two octaves. Most begin "Women are." and enumerate their roles in public and private life, mixing ancient pagan, biblical and contemporary imagery. Among other things, women temper the conduct of princes, are steadfast in war, calm the rabble, exhibit moral courage, shape the young, soothe the troubled, welcome the stranger, protect the traveler, ensure stability at home, maintain family finances and live their faith. The following extended poem (135 lines) likens women's personal qualities to precious stones, flowers, metals, birds, trees, unicorns, animals, insects, the four elements, architecture, ornament, weather, (French) textiles. The prose work at the end, LE BEAUTÉ DES DAMES, INTIMATELY ADDRESSES WOMEN'S PHYSICAL BEAUTY in twenty sets of three attributes - three longs (thighs, arms, waist), three shorts (breasts, buttocks, nails), three whites, three blacks, etc. A third of the sets have explicitly erogenous elements. The sets are clearly spoken wit to be memorized and traded as tavern humor for men. It is appended to only a few of the ?dozen known printings of the Louange (c. 1481-c. 1540) of which only two survive in more than a single example. The only antiquarian edition of these texts in the U.S. was acquired a century ago (by Harvard from E.P. Goldschmidt, Catalogue 11 (1927) 332, Toulouse 1535/40). In good condition, one lower margin uncut, Fairfax Murray bookticket, Bourdel bookplate laid in. Bechtel, Catalogue des gothiques français L-310; Moreau, Inventaire chronologique des éditions parisiennes du XVIe siècle (1985) III: 1257 (assigned to Lotrian and dated based on the woodcut and typographic material); BP16 105441; Davies, Catalogue of a Collection of Early French Books in the Library of C. Fairfax Murray 334 this copy; Pettegree et al., French Vernacular Books.before 1601 34398; Nodier, Description raisonnée d'une jolie collection de livres (1844) 299 (another edition, hammer price in the top 1% of the sale). Crushed Jansenist red morocco (Chambolle-Duru, front hinge rubbed), gilt-lettered spine, all edges gilt, parti-colored silk marker.