Oct 16, 2018 - Sale 2488

Sale 2488 - Lot 126

Price Realized: $ 3,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(MARY, Queen of Scots.) [Belleforest, François de, mistakenly attributed to.] L'Innocence de la tresillustre tres-chaste, et debonnaire Princesse, Madame Marie Royne d'Escosse. [20], 53 [i. e., 100]; 78 leaves. 2 parts in one volume. 8vo, 160x103 mm, 18th-century red morocco gilt; contents toned, margins trimmed just entering a few sidenotes, repair in blank lower margin of first 6 leaves. Ownership inscription of the Tours Benedictine monastery of St. Julian on title; armorial bookplate of Henry Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, second Duke of Newcastle, on front pastedown. [Reims: Jean de Foigny], 1572

Additional Details

"L'Innocence was the most significant Catholic response to the deposition and imprisonment of Mary Queen of Scots . . . establishing a portrait of Mary as a good Catholic ruler, brought down by the machinations of Protestant rebels who would do anything to satisfy their own ambitions" (Wilkinson). Copies are found in variant settings "caused by the addition or removal of passages offensive to many of the actors in the drama" (Scott). This copy collates as follows: a-b in 8, c in 4 (title and Avertissement . . . au Lecteur); A-M in 8, N in 4 (complete text of Contre les perverses calomnies); P-Z in 8, 2A in 8 (complete text of Discours contre les conspirations, lacking blanks 2A7-8), with no errata. Allison & Rogers I, 726; Rothschild 2371; Scott, A Bibliography of Works relating to Mary Queen of Scots 85; Wilkinson, Mary Queen of Scots and French Public Opinion, pages 63-66.