MANTUAN Baptiste La Parthenice de Mariane de Baptiste Mantuan poete theologue de l’ordre de nostre dame des carmes trâslatee de latin en françoys.

Bechtel, B4 ; Brunet, III, 1376 ; Baudrier, I, 44 & XII, 127 (with illustration) ; Gültlingen, Lyon, I, p. 85, no. 104 ; Brun, p. 244. See sale S. Brunschwig, 1955, lot 473 (other copy). Not in Mortimer.

First and only translation in verses by Jacques de Mortières.

Written by Baptiste Mantuan, also known as Battista Spagnoli (1447–1516), one of the most renowned Latin poets of his time, with an immense output of around 50,000 verses.

Highly regarded by William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser and John Milton, Erasmus described this important poet of Italian humanism as ‘the Christian Virgil’. Venerated since his death, Battista Mantuan was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1885. Mantuan entered the Carmelite Order in Mantua and took his religious vows in 1464; a talented man, he was elected Prior General of the congregation in 1513.

This edition, carefully printed in Lyon, is illustrated with two large figures (the Holy Family, repeated), the arms of Marguerite de France, and 33 woodcut vignettes, most of which illustrate the life of Christ. The title is decorated with a large vignette bearing the printer’s mark.

This book is very rare in institutional libraries; Gültlingen locates three copies in France (Lyon, BM; Paris, Arsenal; Paris, BnF) and one copy in the United Kingdom (London, BL). USTC does not locate any copies in the United States. Apart from this copy, we have only found one other copy for sale at public auction (a copy from the Hoe and Froissart collections).

A very fine copy, complete with the page containing the acrostic poem with the name of Marguerite de France, author of the Héptameron, to whom the work is dedicated by the translator.

Provenance: Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Château de Valençay (bookplate) – Antoine Danyau (bookplate) – F. Desq (bookplate).