La vie & les gestes du preux Chevalier Bayard. Contenant plusieurs victoires par luy faictes durant le regne des Roys de France Charles huictiesme, Loys douziesme, & de Francois premier de ce nom, tant es Italies, Naples, & Picardie, que autres pays & regions. Paris, Nicolas Bonfons, [c.1580s]. [bound with:]BOUCHET, Jean. [Le panegyric du chevallier sans reproche.]

[CHAMPIER, Symphorien.]

Edité par [(Colophon:) Poitiers, Jacques Bouchet [and Enguilbert de Marnef], 28 March 1527.], 1527

A propos de cet article

Two works in one vol., 4to, I: ff.[56], A O4; title with woodcut initial and woodcut illustration of a battle scene, other woodcut initials, illustrations and tailpieces; cut close throughout with slight loss of text at head of 16 leaves, first quire strengthened along folds, small repair to upper corner of title; II: ff.[6], clxxxv, [clxxxviii] cxcvi, A6 B Z8 Aa Bb6 Cc8; lacking first 12 leaves (quires p4 +8) and Bb4 5; woodcut initials; cut somewhat close, first and last pages somewhat soiled, B8v C1r soiled, small hole in G8 with slight loss of text; bound in eighteenth-century smooth calf, spine gilt in compartments and lettered directly in second compartment, gilt board edges and turn-ins, edges speckled; upper joint cracked, lower joint cracked at head, lower corner of upper cover slightly torn; 'guyon de sardiere' written on first and last page of each work, old ink shelfmark O5-1 to verso of flyleaf.An otherwise unrecorded late sixteenth-century edition of Champier's life of the Chevalier de Bayard, bound with the first edition of an account of Louis de la Trémoille, from the renowned library of Guyon de Sardière. Pierre Terrail (c.1473 1524), seigneur de Bayard, fought in the Italian Wars of Charles VIII, Louis XII and François I, taking an active role in the most significant battles and sieges including Fornovo (1495), Agnadello (1509), and Marignano (1515). His deeds and actions turned him into a national hero, at a time when warfare was transforming itself from medieval knights on horseback into artillery-based combat; although he knighted the young François I on the battlefield at Marignano, he was eventually killed by a bullet. Symphorien Champier (1471 1539), a doctor from Lyon, was married to Marguerite Terrail, a cousin of the Chevalier; as physician to Antoine duke of Lorraine, he accompanied the French army to Italy, tending to Bayard's battlefield wounds himself in 1512. He was therefore able to report events first-hand, composing his account of Bayard's life shortly after he died in 1524; first printed in Lyon in 1525, this is perhaps the tenth printing. It was a very popular work; despite the numerous editions printed in both Lyon and Paris, very few copies have survived. The printer Nicolas Bonfons was active in Paris between 1572 and 1618, and, like his father Jean, specialised in chivalric literature and vernacular devotion, which have a generally low rate of survival. His edition is presumably reprinted from his father Jean's edition of c.1558/68 [Bechtel C-146], though the Peterhouse copy of that earlier printing has a final quire P2 with printer's device on final leaf, not present in this later edition. Jean Bouchet (1476 1557) wrote numerous works on history and chivalry from 1503 onwards. He worked for the La Trémoille family from 1510 onwards, also arranging the ceremonial entry of François I into Poitiers in 1520, and he corresponded with Rabelais and Ronsard's father. He composed this edifying panegyric to glorify his patron, though unlike his other historical works, it was not reprinted during the sixteenth century. His works were published by the de Marnef family from 1518 onwards, following a dispute with his previous publisher Antoine Vérard. Louis de La Trémoille (1460 1525), from Poitou, similarly served in the Italian campaigns under Charles VIII, Louis XII, and François I. Like the Chevalier de Bayard, he was at the Battles of Fornovo, Agnadello and Marignano, eventually dying (also from a shotgun wound) at the disastrous Battle of Pavia where François was taken hostage by Charles V. He married the daughter of Cesare Borgia and Charlotte d'Albret in 1517. Bouchet's text also contains the earliest description of the Battle of Pavia, drawn from various eye-witness accounts. The Bouchet and de Marnef families were early arrivals on the printing scene in Poitiers, both establishing long-lived printing dynasties, the de Marnefs having expanded to Poitiers from their Paris printshop. The addr.

N° de réf. du vendeur G2713

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: La vie & les gestes du preux Chevalier Bayard. Contenant plusieurs victoires par luy faictes durant le regne des Roys de France Charles huictiesme, Loys douziesme, & de Francois premier de ce nom, tant es Italies, Naples, & Picardie, que autres pays & regions. Paris, Nicolas Bonfons, [c.1580s]. [bound with:]BOUCHET, Jean. [Le panegyric du chevallier sans reproche.]
• Éditeur: [(Colophon:) Poitiers, Jacques Bouchet [and Enguilbert de Marnef], 28 March 1527.]
• Date de parution: 1527
• Reliure: Couverture rigide