40 - [ENTRANCE OF HENRY II INTO PARIS]. This is the order of events that took place during the new and joyful entrance of the most illustrious, most excellent, and most powerful Prince, the Most Christian King Henry II, of that name, made in his good city and town of Paris, capital of his kingdom, on the sixteenth day of June, 1549. – This is the order and form that was observed at the Coronation of the Most High and Most Illustrious Lady, Madame Catherine de’ Medici, Queen of France, held at the Church of Saint Denis in France, on the 10th day of June M.D.XLIX. Paris, Jehan Dallier, s.d. (1549). In-4 (236 x 166 mm), Lavallière morocco leather lined with blue morocco leather, spine decorated and inlaid, covers entirely adorned with a magnificent Renaissance-style design composed of inlaid volutes and interlacing patterns incorporating the crowned cipher of Henry II, his monogram, and the crescents of Diane de Poitiers; lining covered with a scattered pattern alternating crowned H’s and fleurs-de-lis with the royal coat of arms in the center; blue tabis endpapers; gilt and chiseled edges; green morocco book-shaped slipcase (Lortic).

[ENTRANCE OF HENRY II INTO PARIS]. This is the order of events that took place during the new and joyful entrance of the most illustrious, most excellent, and most powerful Prince, the Most Christian King Henry II, of that name, made in his good city and town of Paris, capital of his kingdom, on the sixteenth day of June, 1549. – This is the order and form that was observed at the Coronation of the Most High and Most Illustrious Lady, Madame Catherine de’ Medici, Queen of France, held at the Church of Saint Denis in France, on the 10th day of June M.D.XLIX. Paris, Jehan Dallier, s.d. (1549). In-4 (236 x 166 mm), Lavallière morocco leather lined with blue morocco leather, spine decorated and inlaid, covers entirely adorned with a magnificent Renaissance-style design composed of inlaid volutes and interlacing patterns incorporating the crowned cipher of Henry II, his monogram, and the crescents of Diane de Poitiers; lining covered with a scattered pattern alternating crowned H’s and fleurs-de-lis with the royal coat of arms in the center; blue tabis endpapers; gilt and chiseled edges; green morocco book-shaped slipcase (Lortic). Collation: a-g4, A-C4, D2, 42 leaves (excluding the last blank leaf); A-C4, 12 leaves, excluding the last blank leaf. First edition of the most magnificent French royal entry and one of the most famous illustrated books of the Renaissance. Copy inscribed to Jean Dallier. Rectangular stamp of Jacques Roffet on the title page. This official booklet, celebrating the solemn entry of Henry II and Catherine de’ Medici into Paris on June 16, 1549, reflected the new monarch’s desire— who had been crowned two years earlier, to stage a true display of royal power during ephemeral festivities by bringing together architects, sculptors, painters, goldsmiths, and musicians to glorify the monarchy. The task of writing the work was entrusted to Hardouyn Chauveau, as indicated by a handwritten note in his own hand on the copy held by the Soleine Library. Jean Martin, translator of Serlio, Vitruvius, and *The Dream of Poliphile*, as well as the poet Thomas Sébillet, also contributed to the work. But it is the volume’s exquisitely crafted illustrations that capture the reader’s attention above all else. Their finesse and elegance have led them to be attributed to the greatest artists—formerly Geoffroy Tory and Jean Cousin, and today Jean Goujon, the famous sculptor of the Fontainebleau school. It consists of nine large woodcut illustrations within the text, plus two separate plates, one of which is a fold-out. Of particular note is the illustration depicting a horseman, which ranks among the masterpieces of 16th-century woodcut art. It is also one of the most famous works in French Renaissance iconography, particularly because it is said that the motifs on the horse’s armor foreshadow the “fanfare” bookbinding style, which emerged in the middle of the century. No less remarkable is the illustration showing a 21-meter-high obelisk resting on a rhinoceros, the latter modeled after Dürer’s famous woodcut; this sculpture was designed by Jean Goujon and installed across from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Rue Saint-Denis. The publishing privilege was granted to the bookseller Jacques Roffet, who partnered with his colleague Jean Dallier. Several different print runs were produced, in the name of one or the other of these booksellers, with the title pages bearing either one of Jacques Roffet’s two marks—oval or rectangular—or Dallier’s mark. Edouard Rahir identified four of these printings and described them in the catalog of the Dutuit Collection (no. 669): the first two (printings A and B) consist of 38 pages, while the third, C—to which our copy belongs—consists of 41 pages. In this last edition, Rahir writes, “the last three quires—B, C, and D—were typeset anew, and the text was significantly expanded starting on the 34th folio. The author dwells at greater length on the banquet hosted for the Queen at Cardinal du Bellay’s residence; he also mentions the gift presented to the Queen—a sideboard with two-layered gilded silver tableware adorned with fleurs-de-lis and crescents—as well as the gift presented to the King: a most beautiful piece of silverwork, crafted from chiseled ducat gold, engraved and enameled and crafted with such goldsmithing artistry that one has never seen a more beautiful piece of work in all of Europe […] The last folios are incorrectly numbered 37, 40, 39, 38, 37. ”. This C edition was notably that of the two Otto Schäfer copies, as well as the Fairfax Murray and Vershbow copies, with three of them featuring a “variant of the variant,” where the woodcut originally on the verso of the 40th leaf (incorrectly numbered 38) was moved to the recto of a 42nd leaf (D2, blank verso). Attached to the copy, as is sometimes the case, was the account of the Coronation and Enthronement of the re