Guillaume CRÉTIN. Chãtz royaulx, oraisons : & aultres petitz Traictez... Small in-4, blind-stamped basane with cold decoration in the Du Seuil style, spine with 3 double nerfs decorated in cold ( Period binding restored). Bechtel, 198/C-895 // Brunet, II-421 // De Backer, I-190 // Ruble, 137 // USTC, 73218. (4f.)-CXXXV-(1f.) / a4, A-H4, I8, K-P4, Q8, R-X4, AA-LL4 / 33 lines, gothic car / 122 x 184 mm. Second edition of this collection of poetic texts composed at the request of François I. Court poet Guillaume Crétin began his career as an ecclesiastic. He was first treasurer, then canon of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. He then became historiographer to Francis I, and at his request wrote his Chants royaux, a collection of all his poems, including ballads, orations, laments, numerous epistles to Charles VIII, Louis XII, the Duke of Valois, François I..., as well as a debate between the two ladies on the passetemps des chiens & oyseaux, a plaidoye de lamant doloreux, an invective against the gens darmes francoys... Equally at home in epistles and epigrams, Guillaume Crétin influenced Lemaire de Belges and even C. Marot [...]. like many others of his century, he displayed a great idealism of virtue (Bechtel), but was ridiculed by Rabelais under the name of Romina Grobis in his Pantagruel. Three editions of these Chants royaux were published, including one dated 1527 by Galliot Du Pré. Ours, with its corrections to the 1527 text, must be considered the second or third, despite the notes by Brunet, De Backer and Ruble. Title in red and black, large wood on verso with the author offering his book to François I and printer's mark on last leaf. The binding has been restored and perhaps modified in the past. The copy must have been washed without too much excess, traces of wetness remain on several pages and the copy has been replaced in its binding, which we cannot confirm is the original one. Mottling to title and several leaves, repair to title with small paper loss.