[Jean de CLAUSO]. La complainte de france. Lacteur. Loyaulx frãcoys: faictes vos devoir... Booklet in-4, blue morocco, gilt fillet on covers, smooth spine with long title, interior lace, gilt edges ( Lloyd, Wallis & Lloyd). Baudrier, X-309 // Bechtel, 161/C-461 // Brunet, II-90-196 // Cioranescu, 6696 // Fairfax Murray 96 // USTC, 79163. (12f.) / A-C4 / 34 or 35 lines, gothic car / 135 x 188 mm. Very rare edition of this verse piece dedicated to the children of François I, who were handed over as hostages to the Spanish in 1526, as a guarantee for the Treaty of Madrid. After the disaster of Pavia in 1525, Francis I was taken captive to Madrid, where, to gain his freedom, he signed the treaty of the same name, renouncing his suzerainty over Flanders and Artois, and ceding the entire duchy of Burgundy, the viscounty of Auxerre, the Charolais region... a quarter of France. His sons pledged to respect this treaty. The name of the author, Jean de Clauso, can be seen in several places, first in the engraving on the title, where his initials are inscribed on the side of a desk, then the same initials J.D.C. in the dedication to the king's mother, Louise de Savoie, who acted as regent, and finally, on the last page, in an acrostic in which his name appears in full. This author appears to have published only this small opuscule. The first leaf is illustrated with a fine woodcut reproduced by Baudrier for the Lyon edition: in his library, the author is seated at his table, addressing France, standing before him. The latter is wearing a robe strewn with lilies and is surrounded by a banner bearing the Latin inscription Audite obsecro universi populi et videte dolorem meum tremorum primo, which can be translated as Listen, I beseech all the people, and see my pain and my trembling. Bechtel mentions an edition published in Toulouse that corresponds to ours. He gives another copy at the BnF which contains only 8 leaves, but which, after verification, is incomplete of cahier B. We have found no other copy, and Fairfax Murray, to whom this copy belonged, thought it was probably unique. The USTC lists only one copy in private hands. First leaf soiled with angular restorations, stains on several leaves with ghosts of old handwriting. Provenance: Fairfax Murray (label, no. 96) and old bookplate in ink on title. AEgidii Giannini.