VILLON, François - Le Grant testament Maistre Françoys Villon et le petit. Son codicille avec le Jargon & ses Ballades [Paris], [Guillaume Nyverd], [1518-1520]
THE TRUE VILLON, IN THE PURITY OF HIS ORIGINAL FRENCH LANGUAGE, BEFORE THE REVISION OF CLEMENT MAROT.
A SUPERB COPY OF ONE OF THE VERY FEW GOTHIC VILLON KNOWN TODAY, PRESERVED IN PRIVATE HANDS. all the more valuable because it is in pre-19th century bindings.
ONE OF THE TROPHIES OF ANY LITERARY COLLECTION.
EDITION TODAY KNOWN BY ONLY ONE EXAMPLE: CELUI-CI [followed by:] Le Recueil des repues franches de maistre François Villon & ses compaignons, [Paris], [Guillaume Nyverd], [1518-1520]
Two works, or two parts (according to Bechtel), in one volume in-8 (122 x 82 mm). Bechtel writes: "may be followed (or not) by a second part, Le Recueil des repues franches, joined for the first time to the Testament"
COLLATION : (I) : a-f8 : 48 leaves ; (II) : a-c8 : 24 leaves, that is to say 72 leaves in all
CONTENTS: a1r : Le grant testament, a1v, beginning of the poem: En lan de mon trentième aage / Que toutes mes hontes ieu beues / Në du tout fol encore ne sage / Nonobstant maintes peines eues, e5r [Ballade des pendus] : Epitaph of the aforementioned Villon / Human brothers who after we live / Don't have the guts against us hardened, f8v : colophon : Cy finist le testament / codicille / iargon / & les ballades de maistre Françoys Villon. Printed in Paris by Guillaume Nyverd demourant en la rue de Juyveruie a lymage sainct Piezrre ou a la première porte du Pallays ; (II) : a1r : title, a1v : À vous qui cherchez les repues franches, c7v : end of text, c8v : typographical mark of Guillaume Nyverd with figure of the Annunciation
ILLUSTRATION: (I): two woodcuts joined in a single image on the title page of the Grant Testament; (II): three woodcuts joined in a single image on the title page of the Repues franches, repeated at the end in c8r, making a total of 3 full-page illustrations
BINDINGS circa 1750, red morocco, gilt decoration, triple fillet with rosette at the corners, long spine grotesquely decorated with vertical titling, gilt edges
PROVENANCE: Joseph Antoine Crozat (1696-1751), Marquis de Tugny, with his handwritten bookplate on the title page: Ex Bibliotheca D. Crozatia in suprema Parisiensis curia Presidis, not in the catalog of his 1751 sale (for a copy with the same handwritten bookplate, see Christie's Paris, June 25, 2009, no. 31) -- Louis-César de La Baume Le Blanc, Duc de La Vallière (1708-1780; his sale, Cat, première partie, t. II, Paris, De Bure, 1783, p. 275, n° 2814) -- Richard Heber (1774-1833; Bibliotheca Heberiana, Catalogue of the Library of the late Richard Heber, London, Sotheby's, 1836, n° 3049, p. 185 : "old morocco. From the Crozat Collection," £4 6s) -- Nicolas Yemeniz (1783-1871; bookplate, his sale: Cat., Paris, 1867, no. 1625, 6020 fr, previously described in Catalogue de mes livres, Lyon, 1865, t. I, no. 1625) -- Édouard Rahir (1862-1924; bookplate, his sale, La Bibliothèque de feu Édouard Rahir, Paris, 1931, II, no. 701, 42.000 fr, the second highest price of this sale) -- Edmée Maus (number marked in pencil by André Jammes at the head of the first endpaper: "1123") -- Bernard Malle (stamp; acquired from Edmée Maus)
Slightly short margin
The early editions of the poems of François Villon (ca. 1431-after 1463) are divided into two successive blocks: a first set formed by the gothic editions starting with the original edition given by Pierre Levet in 1489, and a second set published in round letters starting with the revision of Clément Marot published by Galliot du Pré in 1533. This division into two sets, perceptible to the naked eye in the choice of characters, proves all the more important as the text itself, in its overall composition as well as in its language, was reworked by Marot: "Apres quant quant il s'est trouvé faulte de vers entiers, j'ay prins peine de les refaire au plus près (selon mon possible) de l'intenciion de l'autheur : & les trouverez expressement de cette marque. * Affin que ceulx qui les sauront en la sorrte que Villon les fist, effacent les nouveaulx pour faire place aux vieulx" (prologue of the edition of Galliot du Pré, 1533).
Marot's work certainly allowed Villon's verses to pass to posterity (one counts twelve editions of this revision between 1533 and 1542). But, beyond the original language, Marot also lost in passing a principle of scattering proper to the writings of the poet: "Villon does not use the word "book" for his own works. He does not have the idea of a collected work... François Villon did not think of his works as gathered into a whole, fixed, unlike authors like Guillaume de Machaut or Christine de Pizan" (Jacqueline Cerquiglini-Toulet, Pléiade, 2014, p. XXV). The editions revised by Marot are thus unduly called on their first page, Les Œuvres de François Villon: "the edition of C
Estim. 200,000 - 300,000 EUR
