HEURES À L'USAGE DE ROME.

Horae in laudem beatissimae virginis Mariae, ad usum Romanum. Paris, Simon de Colines, 1543. In-4, fawn calf, framed by a roulette between two double fillets, large symmetrical decoration of brown scrolls set with gilt fillets intersecting at the corners and in the centre, various fleurons and irons, spine decorated with a small repeated iron, gilt and chased edges (Binding of the time). Brun, p. 217. - Lacombe, n°426. - Mortimer, n°306. - Renouard, Colines, pp. 378-379. ONE OF THE MASTERPIECES OF THE FRENCH ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF THE RENAISSANCE. First edition in quarto of this beautiful book of hours printed by Simon de Colines. The latter published another edition the same year in a smaller format (in-8). Title placed in a woodcut frame. Printed in Roman characters in red and black, each page is bordered by a frame chosen from a set of 16 models classified into two different types: the first consists of 8 frames engraved in the manner of Geoffroy Tory, decorated with candelabra, loves and cherubs, grotesques, antique foliage, etc., and the second one with 8 other frames engraved in black manner and decorated with arabesques or aldine fleurons which remind a lot the decoration of contemporary bindings. 14 large full-page wood-engraved compositions, each with its own frame, in the first edition. These fine woodcuts have been finely engraved and seven of them are marked with the cross of Lorraine; with the exception of the figure of St. John, engraved in line, they all bear shaded effects and offer meticulous detail. Mortimer indicates that they were designed not to be coloured. The almanac on the reverse of the title is given for the years 1543 to 1568. A REGLE AND YELLOW RUBRICATED COPY, COVERED IN A SUPERB ORIGINAL PARISIAN BINDING WITH GILT EDGES AND CHISELLED. One will notice in the material used a bird's iron, which is not that of the "pecking crow binder", and the central diamond composed by the juxtaposition of four irons close to an iron used on a binding by Grolier (cf. n°40 of the Grolier exhibition in the British Museum in 1965). Endpapers formerly covered with handwritten orations to the Virgin Mary. Engraved armorial bookplate of the Bibliotheca de Bresse. Spotting on some leaves. Covers and corners partly restored, decoration rubbed, traces of epidermis, one jaw split on 7 cm.