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Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 8,000
Meliadus de Leonnoys. Du Present Volume sont Contenus les Nobles Faictz d'armes du Vaillant Roy Meliadus de Leonnoys.
Paris: Galliot du Pre, 1528.
First edition, folio, title page printed in red and black within elaborate compartment, ruled in red, with half-page woodcut heading the dedication of the writer at his desk; woodcut coat of arms; large woodcut of the hero of the story mounted on his horse, with both in full armor; first leaf of text printed within woodcut borders on all four sides; woodcut initials; bound in full 18th century morocco, with unidentified cardinal's arms on both boards, ornately gilt-tooled rolled tool borders; spine gilt and lettered in compartments, all edges marbled and gilt, very nicely preserved; arms formerly (erroneously) identified as those of Cardinal Berthier de Berzy or Cardinal Louis-Gaston Fleuriau d'Armenonville; ex libris Wodhull with dated acquisition note in his hand from 1771; sold in the Wodhull sale in 1816; ex libris Sir Henry Hope Edwardes, with bookplate; Clarence S. Bemens, with bookplate; and Edmée Maus; purchased by Quaritch on behalf or Rapoport at Sotheby's in 1998; this copy described in Arthur Rau's narrative concerning Maus's collection that appeared in the spring 1958 issue of The Book Collector; 13 x 8 1/8 in.
This French romance was first called Palamedes, and springs from the Lancelot-Holy Grail cycle and the chivalric tale of Tristan & Iseult. The present tale finds us a generation before King Arthur, with Uther Pendragon still in the throne, and Tristan and Arthur mere children. Meliadus of the title is the main character, and his many knightly exploits include participation (with a young Arthur) in a war against the Saxons, an abduction of the Queen of Scotland, and his own capture.
Brun page 258; Brunet III 1588; this edition not in Fairfax Murray.
