L'histoire de Pierre de Provence et de la belle Maguelonne
A precious edition of this Provençal chivalric novel.
In-4 of (22) leaves including the title leaf and the bearing leaf. Red Jansenist morocco, triple gilt fillet framing the covers, spine with raised bands adorned with gilt fleurons, gilt fillet on edges, gilt inner roll, gilt edges over marbling, marginal restoration to 2 leaves, ruled copy. Trautz-Bauzonnet.
196 x 137 mm.
Trevies, Bernard de. The History of Pierre de Provence & the Beautiful Maguelonne.
Antwerp, Ian de Waesberghe, 1560.
Precious and extremely rare edition in roman type of this Provençal chivalry romance.
It is adorned with a beautiful Renaissance border on the title page.
Brunet, IV, 647; Graesse, V, 287.
Written in the 12th century by Bernard de Trevies, this renowned romance recounts the sentimental adventures of Pierre, son of the Count of Provence, and the beautiful Maguelonne, daughter of the King of Naples, marked by the lovers’ separation and concluding with their final reunion.
The two versions of this story, the older dating from the first half of the 15th century and the shorter one from 1453, emerged within the circles of the house of Anjou-Provence before being printed in Lyon around 1480.
The romance of Pierre de Provence and the Beautiful Maguelonne enjoyed great popularity in the countries of Europe and Asia from the 15th century onwards. Mr. Alfred Coville believes the tale was inspired by ancient legends going back to the 12th century. He emphasizes the literary merit of the work itself, whose author, unknown, possessed a very real talent for writing.
This chivalric romance always enjoyed great success, as evidenced by the various translations into foreign languages and the large number of editions that continued to be published until the 17th century and well beyond in the Bibliothèque bleue collection.
Bibliographers point out the extreme rarity of most editions of this romance, all of which have achieved considerable prices at public sales.
Thus, Deschamps notes the “considerable” price of 2,850 gold francs achieved by the 1524 edition copy at the Brunet sale (Supplément, II, 235).
The copy cited by Brunet came from the Armand Bertin library; it then passed into the Firmin-Didot collection, and later into that of Hector de Backer where it was sold for 3,100 gold francs, one of the most significant prices at the sale of 17-20 February 1926, where it was described as follows: “only copy cited by Brunet, very rare edition of this romance, all old editions of which are sought after.”
Our research within International Public Institutions has only allowed us to locate a single copy of this extremely rare edition: Houghton Library, Harvard University.
