Histoire et chronique memorable

4 volumes in-folio of (8) leaves, 423 pp., (1) p., (14 leaves); 6 leaves, 288 pp.; (4) leaves, 333 pp., (2) leaves; (4) leaves, 324 pp.; the 2 annotation leaves, unpaginated, not bound at the end of the second volume.
Full garnet morocco, spines ribbed, decorated and gilt, triple gilt fillet framing the covers embossed with the gilt arms of Madame de Pompadour, double gilt fillet on edges, gilt inner roll, gilt edges.

325 x 218 mm.

Froissart, Jean (1337-after 1400). Memorable History and Chronicle of Sir John Froissart. Revised and Corrected from Various Copies, and according to the Best Authors, by Denis Sauvage of Fontenailles in Brie, Historiographer to the Most Christian Henry the Second of that name. First [Second, Third, Fourth] Volume. Paris, Pierre L’Huillier, 1574.

“Very good edition” (Brunet, suppl. I, 521); who does not mention any copy in armorial binding, but does list a 19th-century Chambolle-Duru binding at the very high price of 400 F OR at the Fontaine sale of 1875.

Froissart’s Chronicles are a prose epic by Jean Froissart (1337-after 1400), published around the end of the 15th century under this very explicit title: “Chronicles of France, England, Scotland, Spain, Brittany, Gascony, Flanders, and Surrounding Places.” Divided into four books, it covers no less than three quarters of the 14th century (from 1325 to 1400). The greater part of it deals with the Hundred Years’ War.

Gifted with color, keen observation, verve, and memory, Froissart has what it takes to bring back to life the world he cherishes; not to mention the optimism born from a love of his craft. Nor does he make any secret of it: “I have entered my forge to work and to forge in the noble material of times past... The more I am there and the more I work, the more I enjoy it.” Battles, raids and ambushes, breathless expeditions, conspiracies, festivities, with tournaments always governed by the strictest ceremonial—he kneads this rich material all the more carefully as it directly responds to the tastes of his readers.

Froissart is a great prose writer. So great, in fact, that in the 14th century his work marks the triumph of prose over verse.

Precious and beautiful copy with the great arms of the Marquise de Pompadour, well documented in the catalogue of her library (no. 2581). Ex-libris of Crecy, manuscript ex-libris of Charles R. Tronchin (1763-1835) and armorial ex-libris of Henri Tronchin (1794-1865) with the motto “Sursum corda”; nephew of Charles Tronchin, he was an artillery captain in the service of the Netherlands, then federal lieutenant-colonel of artillery, and notably participated in the creation and development of the Evangelical Society of Geneva.
Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Duchess-Marquise of Pompadour and of Ménars near Blois, Lady of Saint-Ouen, daughter of Antoine, chief clerk in the Paris brothers’ offices, and of a libertine mother, born in Paris on December 29, 1721, endowed with all the charming qualities of mind and body, received a careful education thanks to the protection of her mother’s friend, the financier Le Normand de Tournehem, who arranged for her to marry his nephew, Charles-Guillaume le Normand d’Etioles, on March 9, 1741—a chevalier of honour at the Blois presidial court, then Fermier Général, of whom she was the first wife and to whom she bore a daughter; she first held one of the most brilliant salons frequented by her admirers, by artists and writers, then managed to attract the king’s attention and on April 23, 1745, was installed at court in the former apartment of Madame de Mailly; immediately created Marquise de Pompadour, then appointed lady-in-waiting to the Queen on February 8, 1756, she reigned unchallenged over the king and ruled France in his name for nineteen years, until her death.

Madame de Pompadour, worn out by the life of pleasure she had led, died at Versailles on April 15, 1764, at just 42 years old, leaving all her property to her brother the Marquis de Marigny.

Apart from M. de Beauchamps’ library, composed only of dramatic works she purchased as a whole, she had amassed a very considerable collection of about 4,000 volumes in all genres, most bound with her arms by Derome, Padeloup, and others.