ERASME Les Apophthegmes, c’est à dire promptz, subtilz et sententieulx ditz de plusieurs roys, chefz d’armées, philosophes et autres grans personnaiges tant grecz que latins

Moreau, V, 1729 ; not in Adams or at the British Libary.

Rare revised and corrected edition of Antoine Macault’s French translation, first printed the previous year (1539) by Charlotte Guillard, one of the first female printers, who ran the “Au Soleil d’or” workshop.

The original Latin edition was published in Basel by Froben in 1531. Compiled for the young Prince William of Cleves (1516-1592), Erasmus’ Apophthegmata consists of thousands of sayings and anecdotes taken from Greek and Latin literature and intended for the moral education of the future sovereign, who would marry Jeanne d’Albret, niece of François I, on June 14, 1541.

This edition begins with the privilege (dated October 11, 1538), followed by the dedication to King Francis I and two addresses to readers in verse by Clément Marot, a close friend of Antoine Macault, including a ten-line stanza on the verso of the privilege and an eight-line stanza in the colophon. Antoine Macault translated only the first five books of the Apophthegms: the end of the text was not published until 1553, by another translator.

Edition printed by Charlotte Guillard (1480?-1557), an exceptional figure of the French Renaissance.

Born around 1480 to parents of unknown professions, Charlotte Guillard married Berthold Remboldt in 1502, one of the prototype printers in Paris, who was associated with Ulrich Gehring at the time. The printing workshop was located on Rue de la Sorbonne under the sign of the Soleil d’Or. When Gering ceased operations in 1508, the couple moved to Rue Saint Jacques. After Remboldt’s death, Charlotte Guillard took over the printing business, before remarrying in 1520 to Claude Chevallon, a bookseller specializing in humanist editions whose catalog lists authors such as Étasme, Pacien de Barcelone, and Hilaire de Poitiers. Widowed again in 1537, she continued to run the Soleil d’Or workshop until her death in 1557. 

“Charlotte Guillard est une figure exceptionnelle de la Renaissance française. Originaire du Maine, elle mène à Paris une carrière brillante dans la typographie. Veuve tour à tour des imprimeurs Berthold Rembolt et Claude Chevallon, elle administre en maîtresse femme l’atelier du Soleil d’Or pendant près de vingt ans, de 1537 à 1557. Sous sa direction, l’entreprise accapare le marché de l’édition juridique et des Pères de l’Église, publiant des éditions savantes préparées par quelques-uns des plus illustres humanistes parisiens (Antoine Macault, Jacques Toussain, Jean Du Tillet, Guillaume Postel…). Associant dans un même projet intellectuel les théologiens les plus conservateurs et les lettrés les plus épris de nouveauté, sa production témoigne de la vivacité des débats qui agitent les milieux intellectuels au siècle des Réformes” (cesr-cnrs).

Of this second edition, USTC has located only eight institutional copies worldwide (one in Belgium, three in France, one in Italy, and three in the United States: Chicago University; Yale, Beinecke; Washington: Folger) and none in the United Kingdom.

Very slight occasional marginal water stains, otherwise a fine copy.

Provenance: Fillastre (contemporary signature at the bottom of the title page).