DUWES, Giles (d.1535). An introductorie for to lerne to rede, to pronounce, and to speake Frenche trewly. [London: printed by J. Herford and N. Hill for J. Waley, 1546?].

DUWES, Giles (d.1535). An introductorie for to lerne to rede, to pronounce, and to speake Frenche trewly. [London: printed by J. Herford and N. Hill for J. Waley, 1546?].

Rare third or fourth edition of ‘a pioneering work on French language pedagogy’ (ODNB). The author was a French tutor in the Tudor court from around 1500, instructing the children of Henry VII, including the heir apparent, before assuming the role of royal librarian in 1506. Between 1525 and 1528 he was the music and French language tutor to the Princess Mary, who flourished under his supervision. The Introductorie, first published c.1533, ‘emerged from this experience as a result of an explicit royal command “to reduce and to put by writtyng” the methods he had used for over thirty years to teach the language to his royal pupils’. RBH/ABPC record no copies of this edition at auction; ESTC lists 5 copies in institutions. ESTC S109637.

2 parts in one volume, quarto (196 x 135mm). Title within woodcut border, woodcut Tudor arms on verso, second title within woodcut border, woodcut initials (lacking the final leaf, a few leaves faintly stained). Contemporary English calf, panelled in blind enclosing gilt foliate design, gilt fleurons to corners, spine with gilt floral stamps in compartments (leather worn and detached from upper board, first quire almost loose). Provenance: ‘Thomas Pritchard bought of Michael Smith June 1602’ (inscription on title) – Jane Shirley (early MS quatrain in the margin of 2E2v) – several marginal annotations and pen trials in ink.

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