Le recueil des histoires troiennes contenans troys livres.

Accession number: 
PML 515
Author: 
Lefèvre, Raoul, active 1460.
Published: 
Imprime a Paris : par Anthoine Verard, [approximately 1494]
Description: 
[176] leaves : illustrations (woodcuts) ; 29 cm (fol.)
Credit Line: 
Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Notes: 

Title from half-title page, leaf a1r.
Imprint from colophon, leaf y7r: Finist le recueil des histoires de troies co[n]tenant la genealogie dicelle ense[m]ble les glorieuses prouesse forces et vailla[n]ces de hercules et aussi les trois destructio[n]s et reedifications de la dicte cite faictes ta[n]t par ledit preu Hercules co[m]me par les gregois. Imprime a paris par Anthoine verard libraire demoura[n]t sur le pont nostre dame a limage saint ieha[n] leva[n]geliste ou au palais au premier pilier ou on chante la messe de messeigneurs les presidens.
Date from ISTC.
Vérard's device, leaf y7v.
Printed in Vérard's type 11*:110G.
Signatures: a-y⁸: 176 leaves, leaf y8 blank.
Paper format: Chancery folio.
97 illustrations from 26 woodcuts.
PML copy on vellum, with Vérard's device printed in blind.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 27.5 x 19.3 cm.
PML copy missing 17 leaves: b7, c5, e3, e7, f8, i1, k2, k8, m1.8, n4.5, o1, q4, s8, t5, and v7.

Binding: 
18th/19th-century French gilt-tooled red straight-grained morocco over paper boards (29 x 20.5 cm), sewn on 5 supports by P. Lefébure (or Lefèbvre). Blue silk pastedowns and endleaves, with plain paper endleaves; decorative endbands; gilt edges.
Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Contemporary French illumination painted over but not following woodcut illustrations, including 3 full-page frontispieces (leaves a1+1v, l7r, and x5v) decorated with the arms and motto of Albret; gilt initials and paragraph marks on red ground and ruling lines. First frontispiece (leaf a1+1v) includes an enthroned portrait of Jean d'Albret(?) being handed a book by a kneeling figure; the throne and throne room are striped in red, white, and green; the second is a small depiction of a battle scene; the third shows the fall of Troy. Annotations: No marginal notations in text.

Provenance: 
Jean d'Albret (1469-1516), consort of Queen Catherine of Navarre, illuminated frontispieces including armorial with Albret motto "Espoir me nuyt" (leaves a1+1v, l7r, and x5v) and arms (leaf q6r); Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, A Selection from the Catalogue (1829), no. 86; John Hayford Thorold (1773-1831), monogram booklabel and Syston Park armorial bookplate (front pastedown), probably his purchase inscription: "Longmans 1829" (front endleaf 2 recto); his sale, Sotheby's, 12 Dec. 1884, lot 1117 (identified as presentation copy of Charles VIII); Bernard Quaritch, Catalogue of Medieval Literature (1890), no. 203 for £105.0.0; Richard Bennett (1849-1930), armorial bookplate (rear pastedown) and bibliographical notes: No. 11, 5/5/96 and price code: wml/-/- +com (front endleaf 1 verso); Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Classification: 
Department: