About this Item
First Freudenberger-illustrated edition. Three volumes. Bern: Nouvelle Société Typographique: 1780-1781-1781. Octavo (vol. I: 7 3/8" x 4 9/16", 188mm x 115mm; voll. II-II: 7 ¼" x 4 ½", 184mm x 113mm). [Full collation available.] With 76 engraved plates (of which 3 are engraved titles) and 72 engraved head-pieces and 72 tail-pieces integral with the text. Collated completed against Cohen-de Ricci (i.e., suggesting that no half-title was issued for vol. II). Vol. I bound differently to voll. II and II. Vol. I: red morocco with triple gilt fillet borders, corner fleurons and corner floral ornaments. On the spine, five raised bands. In the panels, fleurons gilt within gilt scrollwork. Title ("HEPTAMERO/ FRANÇOIS") gilt to brown morocco in the second panel. Number blind (?) to the third panel. Gilt fillet to the edges of the boards. Gilt inside dentelle. Blue end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Voll. II-III: red morocco with triple gilt fillet borders. On the spine, five raised bands. In the panels, acorns within gilt scrollwork. Title ("HEPTAMERON/FRANCAIS") gilt to green morocco in the second panel. Number gilt to green morocco in the third. Gilt roll to the edges of the boards. Blue end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Blue silk marking ribbons. Some cracking to the head-pieces and peripheral scuffing. Fore-corners bumped and worn, especially the first volume. Scattered marks of soiling (ink?), and passages of tanning and foxing, but generally very good. Mild offsetting to the plates. Early XIXc (?) ownership inscription of "A. Drouault" to the recto of the first white leaf in each volume. Numeration ("T. 1er") in ink manuscript to the title-page of vol. I. Ink purchase record to the verso of the first free end-paper of vol. II: "2 vol. ¢ v#". Marguerite, Queen of Navarre (1492-1549) was a humanist on the level of Castiglione and Erasmus, with whom she corresponded (he more enthusiastic about her than she him). Born to Charles d'Orléans, Count of Angoulême (a great-grandson of Charles V of France), she married (after an unpleasant and unproductive first marriage) Henry II of Navarre in 1526. Her greater stage was, however, the court of her brother, who ruled as François I, one of France's most celebrated kings. There the brother-and-sister court attracted Leonardo da Vinci and Sebastiano Serlio, Rabelais and Ronsard. Marguerite was, perhaps, the more intellectually curious; she was a deep religious thinker, and an exemplary figure in the attempt to reconcile the Reformation through humanist endeavor. The Heptaméron -- modelled on Boccaccio's Decameron, published around 1350; Marguerite died before completing the tenth day, being two stories into the eighth -- is a collection of 72 intertwined short stories, most of a distinctly romantic or even bawdy character. Cohen-de Ricci calls the present edition an "edition incorrecte, qui a surtout le grand défaut de ne pas donner le texte original de la Reine de Navarre." The great triumph of this edition -- an early production of the Nouvelle Société Typographique, a Swiss publisher that was until 1779 the Société typographique -- is its illustration. Cohen-de Ricci finds kinder words for the images: "les figures, quoique un peu raides, sont très jolies et gravées avec une finesse remarquable." Sigmund Freudenberger (sometimes Freudeberg, with various spellings of the given name; 1745-1801) was a pupil of Boucher, the father of the "estampe galante," a particular type of engraving with frivolous and often erotic undertones. Despite the (small) difference in bindings, it does not appear that this a married set. Rather, it seems likely that the first volume was bound on its publication in 1780 and the second and third volumes were bought together and bound similarly -- perhaps even by Drouault (André? Anne?). Drouault is an old family of the Loire Atlantique. The hand of the signature is at any rate early. Cohen-de Ricci 680-682. Seller Inventory # JLR0612
Contact seller
Report this item
