♦ TERENCE. Therence en françois. Prose et Rime avecques le latin. S.l.n.d. [at colophon] : Paris, Pour Antoine Vérard, s.d. [between 1499 and 1503]. Gothic folio, brown morocco, boards and smooth spine covered with a very large Renaissance decoration formed of green mosaic interlacing and set with gilt fillets, interior framing of two double gilt fillets, vellum endpapers, gilt edges (Marius Michel). GW, M45586. - HC 15435. - Bechtel T-39. - Macfarlane, n°152. - Goff T-106. - Claudin, t. II, pp. 487-491. Precious first edition in French of Terence's comedies. It is printed in Gothic type on two columns, the Latin text opposite the French translation which is attributed to Guillaume Rippe, a notary from Mance who served King Louis XI as his secretary. It is estimated that it was published between 1499 and 1503 at the latest, and there are only about twenty copies in public institutions, of which only three are in France (two at the BnF, one copy on vellum and one on incomplete paper, and one at the INHA). It is one of the most remarkable books of the bookseller-publisher Antoine Vérard, whose typographical mark appears on the last leaf (cf. Renouard, n°1088). The first line of the title page is xylographed in imitation of the letters traced by calligraphers; the beautiful full-page woodcut that adorns the verso of this folio, a symbolic representation of an author offering his book to his sovereign, was used by Vérard in his 1489 edition of Aristotle's Book of Politics (woodcut reproduced by Claudin, t. II, p. 422). The superb illustration includes 2 large full-page engravings, repeated, one of them showing a view of the theater with the boxes and the galleries filled with spectators, and about 300 engravings of a smaller size illustrating the comic scenes. These numerous engravings were obtained by combining several movable woodcuts depicting characters (the actors) and elements of scenery (tree and architectural motifs) more or less imitated from those of the illustrated editions of Terence previously given by Grüninger in Strasbourg and by Treschsel in Lyon: but, as Claudin points out, Vérard's edition prevails over the latter by its superiority, by the delicacy of the sizes, and by the spirit and taste that the Parisian publisher knew how to give to his figures. Born in Carthage and died in Rome, Terence (Publius Terentius Afer), who lived in the 2nd century B.C., was the greatest Latin comic poet with Plautus. He was the poet of choice for the scholarly circles of Rome, in particular the Scipio family, but composed a total of only six comedies that strongly influenced the French classical authors, in particular Molière. A very fine copy, in a splendid binding by Marius Michel, whose boards and spine are entirely covered with a large mosaic decoration of interlacing in the Renaissance style. The decoration of this imposing binding, a brilliant reminder of the most skilful compositions conceived for Grolier's books, is a masterpiece of invention and testifies once again to the artistic mastery of Marius Michel. The copy was included in the April 1900 monthly bulletin of the Damascene Morgand bookshop (n°39062, at the price of 4000 francs).