Calendrier des bergers
The Great Shepherds' Calendar illustrated with nearly one hundred wood engravings.
Beautiful copy of this legendary illustrated work from the Édouard Pelay and Paul Harth libraries.
Small quarto of (88) leaves, text in Gothic characters printed in two columns, 40 lines per page. The first two leaves as well as the calendar are printed in red and black.
Midnight blue morocco, double gilt fillet border, spine with raised bands decorated with gilt tools, inner gilt roll, gilt edges. Chambolle-Duru.
177 x 127 mm.
Very rare parisian edition of this legendary illustrated book which enjoyed a great fame in the 16th century. Bechtel, C-24, p. 111 ; B. Moreau, Inventaire chronologique des éditions parisiennes du XVIe siècle, d’après les manuscrits de Philippe Renouard, 1978, tome, n° 945.
All the 16th century of this popular calendar are very rare. Based on an equation established between a man’s life and the cycle of the year, the text offers both a perpetual almanac and a rich collection of moral precepts, practical advice, and religious pieces. The illustrations, which are of great interest, consist of nearly 100 woodcuts in the text, seven of which depict the torments of hell with violence, realism, and fantasy. The title page is decorated with a beautiful woodcut depicting three shepherds tending their flocks and conversing while observing the stars. According to B. Moreau, despite the date “M. cinq cens, xix” on folio c 1, it seems to date from around 1526, based on the condition of the woodcuts, initial letters, and typeface (B 80) by Alain Lotrian. Published for the first time in Paris in 1491 by Guy Marchant, le Calendrier des bergers was a resounding success and went through numerous editions in the 15th and 16th centuries. A veritable almanac, this famous book contains, in addition to the calendar of the months of the year, the branches of vices and virtues, moral texts, prayers, elements of anatomy, dietetics, and phlebotomy, an important chapter devoted to astrology, as well as ballads and poems. A very fine copy of this legendary illustrated book.
Provenance : Édouard Pelay (ex-libris) ; Paul Harth (ex-libris).
Édouard Pelay (1842-1921), collector and bibliophile from Rouen, was the founder and president of the Society of Norman Bibliophiles.
Paul Harth, Alsatian industrialist attached to the management of the railways and great bibliophile, was president of the Society of Friends of Original Bookbinding.
