Le songe du Vergier

Le songe du Vergier
Le Petit Laurens for Jean Petit, about April 1499
Songe du Vergier. Paris: Le Petit Laurens for Jean Petit at Paris and for Jean Alexandre, Jean Alisot and Charles Debougne at Angers,[c. April 1499].

Second edition of a satirical dream-dialogue on the forms of power. This work, originally composed in the 1370s, takes the form of a dialogue between advocates of temporal and ecclesiastical power, represented by a knight and a cleric. Authorship is still uncertain, although many figures have been proposed, including Évrart de Trémaugon, Philippe de Mezieres, and Charles de Louviers. The earliest extant copy of the original text is King Charles V of France’s own, now located in the British Library, and Charles may have been involved in its composition. The first edition was printed in 1491 in Lyons, and the original woodcuts are reproduced here. The attractive illustration of the king's forester ("Le Vergier") dreaming beneath a tree is attributed by Baudrier to the Master of the Ars Moriendi of Jean Siber. Rare at auction, only two complete copies are recorded by RBH since the 1950s. HC 16005; BMC VIII 163; BSB-Ink S-500.050; Bod-inc S-252; CIBN S-317; Goff V-142 = V-143; ISTC iv00142000.

Chancery folio (272 x 187mm). 144 leaves. Woodcuts, woodcut criblé initials (title repaired at inner margin and corner, repaired closed tear, final leaf repaired at inner margin). 16th-century gilt-stamped sheep (restored). Provenance: erased inscription on title-page.