Histoire palladienne
“rare” first edition of this chivalric novel illustrated with 39 wood engravings.
In-folio of (8) and cxxxiiii ff., round letters, woodcut figures.
Jansenist red morocco, spine with raised bands, double gilt fillet on the edges, gilt inner roll, gilt edges over marbling. Binding signed by Chambolle-Duru.
319 x 200 mm.
Colet, Claude. Jodelle, Etienne. Palladian History, recounting the deeds & noble acts of arms and of love of several great princes and lords, especially Palladian, son of King Milanor of England, and the beautiful Selerine, sister of the King of Portugal (…).
Paris, Estienne Grouleau, 1555.
First edition “rare” (Michaud) of this chivalric romance adorned with 39 woodcut illustrations, 24 of which are different, one of them, noted by Mortimer, French, II, 407, bearing the mark of J. Dallier, one of the three booksellers, with Groulleau and Sertenas, who shared the edition, is signed with the cross of Lorraine. These illustrations were used by Denis Janot for Amadis de Gaule in 1540 and in 1542 for the Philocope.
In this chivalric romance, enchantments and love play an important role.
Claude Colet, born in Romilly in Champagne, was maître d’hôtel to the Marquise de Nesle. Died between 1553 and 1555. Jodelle devoted a long poem “to the ashes of Claude Colet”, his friend.
Colet left under the name Palladian History an adaptation of the first part of a Spanish romance published in Lisbon in 1546, Florando de Inglaterra, which itself claimed to be derived from an (imaginary) English original.
“The introductory leaves of this volume contain a Notice by Estienne Jodelle, the editor and friend of Colet, who had died two years earlier, addressed to the reader, as well as French verses by the same Jodelle to the ashes of Colet, and also Coletti manes, Latin verses by the same poet.
This book is quite rare: 25 fr. La Vallière; 36 fr. in 1841; in mar. Bl. 51 fr. d’Essling. It was reprinted under the same title as below at Antwerp, Jean Waesberghe, 1562, in-4 of ten preliminary leaves and 112 leaves in 2 columns. Woodcut illustrations; and subsequently in Paris, Cl. Micard, 1573, small in-8” (Brunet).
Colet published a French translation of the 9th book of Amadis de Gaules, the famous Spanish romance, and it is still sought after today. La Croix du Maine attributes the translation of this book to Gille Boileau de Bullion. This dual attribution, apparently contradictory, is easily explained by the dates, which show that Boileau is the first translator, and Colet the reviser of Boileau’s translation. Furthermore, the latter complained, in the preface of his Sphère des deux mondes, of the kind of theft Claude Colet had done him. Colet wrote the Palladian History, relating the deeds and noble acts of arms and loves of several great princes and lords, especially those of Palladian and the beautiful Selerine, Paris, 1555, folio, rare, Paris, 1575, in-8, less sought after edition. Abbé Lenglet Dufresnoy listed this romance in his Bibliography under two titles and as if they were two different works.” (Michaud).
At the end of the present volume, Colet announced as a sequel the History of Florent of England and Pamphilie, daughter of the Emperor of Greece, but death did not allow him to write it.
"First edition. This Paris edition was divided among Dallier, Groulleau, and Vincent Sertenas (who held the privilege). There are issues recorded under each of the three imprints. This is generally considered to be not a literal translation but an adaptation of the first part of the Spanish romance Florando de Inglaterra. Claude Colet died before the work was printed, and Etienne Jodelle contributed to this edition a preface and verses « Avx cendres de Colet » (leaves ã2-ã4). The Spanish text was printed in Lisbon by Germão Galharde in 1545, claiming an unidentified and probably non-existent English original. An English translation, by Anthony Munday, of Colet’s version appeared in 1588 (London, Edward Allde, for John Perrin ; S.T.C. 5541). Colet also edited book 9 of the Amadis for the Janot and Groulleau edition." (Harvard-407).
Exceptional copy of this rare original edition with large margins (height 320 mm compared to 315 mm for the Harvard copy and 310 mm for the Morgand et Bérès copy, sold for 40,000 FF 25 years ago “Des Valois à Henri IV, no. 48) bound in elegant red morocco by Chambolle-Duru.
