Les cent nouvelles: nouuelles…a deuiser en toutes bõnes compaignies par maniere de iouyeusete.

      Paris, Alain Lotrian & Denis Janot c. 1535. 4to (189 x 128 mm). [xiv], [292], [2]p. Bâtarde type, double column, NINETY-SEVEN TEXT WOODCUTS, title in red & black within four-block architectural woodcut border of feasting scenes, grotesqueries, etc. Janot’s first device on final verso (Renouard 476). 19th century crushed brown morocco (Pratt), gilt panelled frames with gilt outer corner fleurons, spine & title gilt, board edges & turn-ins gilt, a.e.g. *THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN FRENCH SHORT STORY. Composed as after dinner entertainment for King Louis XII, these tales employ love triangles, intense sensuality, shameless mockery and explicit eroticism. THE WOODBLOCKS SHOW HUNTING PARTIES, COUNTING HOUSES, LOVE-MAKING, SERENADES, FARMERS PLOWING, JOUSTS, MARINERS RETURNING HOME…. Of the dozen or so editions to 1540 are all undated and all of the utmost rarity (e.g., NUC lists only two). This copy was first described in The Huth Library (II: 281). It sold for £30 (Sale IV (1912) 1406) to Quaritch for Rahir, who offered it that year for FF 1500- (Bull. mensuel 15 (N.S.) 427 — for comparison he had the 1531 Alciati at FF 250-). It remains THE ONLY COPY KNOWN OF THIS EDITION, many margins untrimmed; Huth’s gilt blue morocco ex libris and Jean Hersent’s engraved bookplate on the front pastedown. Dubois, Les cent nouvelles nouvelles & la tradition de la nouvelle en France au Moyen âge.