Entrée du roy Henri II

Two works in 1 quarto volume of (38) ff. and 11 engravings, (12) ff., the last blank.

Eggplant morocco, richly decorated with arms and cipher of King Henry II stamped in gilt on covers with fleurs-de-lys and crowned H cipher, spine with raised bands decorated with gilt and blind-tooled fillets, gilt fillet on edges, triple gilt fillet inside, gilt edges. 19th-century binding.

227 x 160 mm.

[Entry of King Henry II]. This is the order that was observed for the new and joyful entry, which… the Most Christian King Henry the Second of that name, made into his good city of Paris on the sixteenth day of June 1549. (Paris, Roffet, 1549.)

Followed by : This is the order and form observed at the Coronation of the most high and illustrious Lady Catherine de Medici, Queen of France, on the 10th day of June, 1549.

Paris, Roffet, 1549.

Rare and precious first edition of “the most beautiful Entry book of the kings of France everpublished” (Ruggieri, 245).

First edition of the coronation and crowning of Queen Catherine de' Medici.

Fairfax Murray French, 150; Du Colombier, Jean Goujon, p. 67-71, plates LVI-LVII; Vinet, 471; Picot Rothschild, IV, 3114; Mortimer French, 202l; Watanabe, 1602.

Account of the solemn Entry into Paris of Henry II and of Catherine de' Medici in 1549, two years after the accession of the king who succeeded his father Francis I, who died in 1547.

The first work describes the Entry ceremony, the second relates the queen's coronation, held six days earlier at Saint-Denis.

Marking the settlement of the succession of Francis I, the event had considerable political importance.

The city of Paris gave it particular solemnity, sparing no effort to emphasize its majestic character: the decorations and buildings were designed and constructed under the direction of the greatest artists, no doubt including Jean Cousin, Jean Goujon, and Philibert de l'Orme.

The custom of solemn entries of sovereigns into a city, and especially into the capital, dates back to Antiquity and has continued practically through all ages. Except for a few exceptions, it was only from 1515, at the Entry of Charles V in Bruges, that such events gave rise to illustrated printed accounts (von Arnim, Fünf Jahrhunderte Buchillustration, p. 91).

This beautiful and rare illustrated book preserves the memory of the finest architectural decorations of the sixteenth century and describes the magnificence of this royal Entry.

The text, attributed to Hardouyn Chauveau by an old inscription in the Soleinne copy, is thought, according to V.L. Saulnier, Les Fêtes de la Renaissance, I, pp. 31-59, to be by the translator of Serlio, Vitruvius, and Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, the writer Jean Martin, assisted, for the inscriptions on the monuments, by the poet Thomas Sebillet.

The eleven woodcut plates, both within and outside the text, that decorate the work—some signed with a cross of Lorraine—have been attributed to the greatest artists. By their perfect engraving and elegant design, perfect examples of the Henri II style in its most refined Parisian expression, they are considered among the masterpieces of sixteenth-century French illustration. There is still an open question as to whether these engravings reproduce the designs used for the monuments at the reception or merely restore their appearance.

The decoration on these plates includes in at least two places—the Pont Notre-Dame and the structure flanking the Beautreillis—the monogram of Diane de Poitiers; her emblem, the crescent moon, which might be taken for a decorative motif, appears in several other locations, but on these two buildings her cypher is conspicuously displayed next to, and sometimes instead of, that of the king. The text mentions the king’s H monograms but remains silent about those of his mistress, aged fifty, who took part in the Queen’s procession under her new title of Duchess of Valentinois.

The account describing the Queen’s coronation at Saint-Denis specifically mentions the Duchess of Valentinois, who was given, after the ceremony, a candle to which the said thirteen gold pieces were attached.

The stylistic influence of this illustration raises various questions: the appearance, in the decoration of the rhinoceros obelisk, of French hieroglyphics that would not be seen again until seven years later in Orus Apollo; it has also been suggested that the ornament on the breastplate of the captain of the guard is one of the origins of the binding motif known as "à la fanfare" (A. Hobson, Reliures “à la fanfare”, 6, and Michon, La Reliure française, p. 78).

The work is decorated with 11 full-page engravings attributed to Geoffroy Tory by Fairfax Murray and to Jean Goujon by Brun (Le livre français illustré de la Renaissance, pp. 179-180).

“Jacques Roffet printed in 1549 a very precious piece entitled: This is the order observed at the new and joyful entry which… the most Christian king Henry the Second of this name made in his good city and cité of Paris on the sixteenth day of June, 1549. The engravings have been attributed to Geofroy Tory and the drawing is worthy of him or rather of Jean Cousin” (A.F. Didot, Essai sur la gravure sur bois, Col. 168).

“Two other printings were issued the same year, one with the address of Jehan Dallier and the emblem of Roffet, the other bearing the address of J. Dallier and his mark: The typefaces and decorated initials differ and the printing of the blocks is not as good” (Brun, p. 180).

Precious and superb copy from the first issue described by Rahir, in 38 pages with the title in the name of Rosset, of one of the most beautiful French books with woodcut engravings.

The Harth copy, from the second issue, was sold for 115,000 F (31 years ago at the Hôtel Drouot) (Sale of November 20, 1985, no. 64).