[Jacques de BUGNIN] Le cõge pris du siecle seculier. Plaquette in-16, midnight blue chagrin nicely decorated with roulettes and straight fillets, spine with 5 very nicely decorated nerves, interior roulette, gilt edges ( Binding from the first half of the 19th century). Bechtel, 170/C-540 // Brunet, II-223 // Fairfax Murray, I-70 // USTC, 79159. (20f.) / A-B8, C4 (with error in signatures) / 27 lines, goth. car. / 80 x 124 mm. Very rare edition of this treatise on religious and practical morality, written in the form of maxims. The author, Jacques de Bugnin, names himself in the prologue. Born in Lausanne, he was chaplain to the cathedral there and parish priest of Saint-Martin in Vaud in 1462. He made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1476, then adopted the Bernardins order and retired to the Cistercian abbey of Tamié in Savoie. His Congé pris du siècle séculier is a long poem with a very curious form. It is divided into 19 parts, one for each letter of the alphabet (except for I and J, which form just one part, and without the letters K, U, W, X, Y and Z). The verses in each part usually begin with the letter to which they are attached. The work must have appeared for the first time around 1500, and Brunet describes six editions, all very rare, distinguishing them by the number of pages or lines. None of these corresponds to our edition, which is cited only by Fairfax Murray, who owned this copy, and by Bechtel, who uses the latter's indications. It is most likely the only known example, or at least the only one referenced by the USTC. The title is adorned with a lovely woodcut depicting an exorcism scene with several figures around a bed, a priest holding the chalice and, in the bed, a woman from whom the Devil is escaping. The ink has smudged on 3 leaves, but the verses are quite legible (C1v, C2r and C3v). Provenance: Fairfax Murray (label, no. 70).