(Paris, Michel Le Noir, 1518).
Small folio [257 x 186 mm], (6) ff., 227, (1) l. with Michel Le Noir’s mark on the back. A small restoration in the upper margin of the title-page without loss and in one page of tables. Bound in English 18th Century calf, gilt fillet on covers, crowned arms gilt-stamped in the center, spine ribbed and decorated, red morocco lettering-piece, sprinkled edges.
Rare first edition of this important book about Turkey, Syria and Palestine. Catalogue des livres rares du Baron Ruble, 377 ; Rahir, La Bibliothèque de l’amateur, 587 ; Brunet, IV, 415 ; Brun, Le livre français illustré de la Renaissance, 243 ; Mortimer, Harvard French, 363 ; Roehricht, 371.
That’s a chronicle of the expeditions to the Holy Land since Charlemagne until the fall of Constantinople to Mahomet II.
Mamerot visited holy places in Jerusalem and on his return in 1488 he wrote his description of the countries he had seen. He describes Venice, Cyprus, Jerusalem, …
The superb illustration consists of an engraved title-page, 6 vignettes of battles in the text and 6 other woodcuts showing Breydenbach’s alphabets.
The last leaf bears Michel Le Noir’s mark on its back.
A precious copy of this rare volume, bound in the 18th century for George John Spencer, the 2nd Earl Spencer, with his crowned coat of arms in the center of covers.
Only five copies are recorded in worldwide institutions: 2 in France, 1 at the NYPL, 1 at the Koninklijke Bibliothek and 1 at the British Library.
Only another complete copy of this work has appeared at auction in the past 30 years.
Harvard’s copy described by Mortimer had the title-page in facsimile.
Provenance: George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834) (the copy was bound with his arms), George Horace (1882-1960) and Alison Johnstone, Trewithan (with their ex libris dated 1933).
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