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All auctions / Books, Maps & Manuscripts / BOVET (Honoré). The Tree of Battles. Paris, Antoine Vérard, - Lot 12
BOVET (Honoré). The Tree of Battles. Paris, Antoine Vérard, June 8, 1493. Small folio, early 19th-century Russian leather binding, embossed spine, covers decorated with a lovely framing frieze featuring Egyptian motifs, gilt edges. Collation: a8, a-n8, o6, p-s8, t6. 155 leaves (out of 156; the first blank leaf is missing). First illustrated edition, the only one published by Vérard. Composed in French between 1386 and 1389 by the Provençal cleric and jurist Honoré (or Honorat) Bovet (or Bouvet, or Bonnor), this landmark work of the late Middle Ages is dedicated to the young King Charles VI, who was then facing a situation of extreme instability caused by the war with England and the Great Schism (1378). Drawing on a wide variety of sources, the author sketches a sort of universal history of battles, from which he derives a set of reflections on the origin and justifications of war intended to guide the young prince. After providing, in the first two books, a summary of the history of Israel, the Catholic Church, and the four kingdoms of antiquity, he focuses in the next two on the legal issues caused by war, particularly in the case of local conflicts. An inevitable and sometimes even beneficial phenomenon, war must, in his view, be regulated to avoid its often devastating consequences. Bovet also urges the monarch to exercise power justly. He contrasts chivalric heroism, duels, and wars of vengeance with discipline, loyalty to the king, and service to the common good. The work spread rapidly throughout Europe. Its success is attested to by the approximately 87 manuscripts that survive today, many of which are richly illuminated. It was published in Lyon as early as the beginning of the 1480s.¹ This edition, the third, is remarkably printed in a long-line Gothic typeface and is richly illustrated with 116 woodcut figures within the text, including quite a few repetitions. The first figure, larger in size and framed by two historiated borders, depicts the author presenting his book to the king. Some of these woodcuts are taken from *Le Chevalier délibéré* (1488) and/or *Flavius Josèphe* (1492) by the same publisher. Vérard’s mark appears at the bottom of the last leaf. This first illustrated edition is an exceedingly rare book. Only sixteen copies, including five incomplete ones, are listed by the ISTC in all international public collections (only one in the United States). No complete copy appears to have appeared at public auction in decades. Bechtel cites only one incomplete copy of 14 folios, sold by the Librairie Valette in 1991 (75,000 francs, or 11,433 €). Max Sander (*Prices of Incunabula*, 1930) also cites only one incomplete copy, this one consisting of 10 folios. A superb copy, with generous margins, unwashed and impeccably preserved, bound in a very elegant binding from the very early 19th century. As with many copies of Vérard’s editions, the title—which consists of only three words in small type—was not preserved, likely from the outset, and was subsequently perfectly recreated as a facsimile on antique paper, a restoration that is virtually invisible. The first leaf has been reattached, with small restored wormholes and an erased inscription in the upper margin. A few rare foxing spots. This copy is unannotated, retaining only the printed lowercase initial intended for the annotator. From the libraries of Duriez, Prince of Essling, Gabriel Turner, and Baron Seillière. 1- The first two editions, unillustrated and extremely rare, were published by Guillaume Le Roy around 1480 and Martin Huss in 1481. The ISTC lists only 8 copies of the first edition and 5 (including 3 incomplete ones) of the second. Acquired by Émile Rossignol in 1966. ISTC, ib01023000; GW 4916; Goff, B-1023; HC 3640; BMC, VIII, 80; Bechtel B-377. See also the excellent critical edition by Reinhilt Richter-Bergmaier (Droz, Textes littéraires français, 2018).
Estimate:$22,496.8
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Estimate:
$22,496.8
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