Accession number
PML 774
Creator
Christine, de Pisan, approximately 1364-approximately 1431.
Object title
The morale proverbes of Cristyne.
Published
Westminster : William Caxton, 20 February 1478.
Description
[4] leaves ; 28 cm (fol.)
Credit line
Purchased with the Amherst collection, 1908.
Notes
Title from incipit (leaf [1]/1r): The morale proverbes of Cristyne.
Colophon (leaf [1]/4v): Of these sayynges [sic] Cristyne was aucteuresse / ... In frenssh languaige was writen[n] this sentence / And thus Englished dooth hit rehers / Antoin Widevylle therl Ryvers. / Go thou litil quayer / and reco[m]maund me / Unto the good grace / of my special lorde / Therle Ryveris. for I have enprinted the / At his co[m]mandement. folowyng evry worde / His copye / as his secretaire can recorde / At westmestre. of feverer the .xx. daye / And of kyng Edward . the .xvii. yere vraye. Entrinted by Caxton In feverer the colde season.
Printed in Caxton's type 2:135B.
Collation: [1⁴]: 4 leaves.
Paper format: Chancery folio
Translated by Anthony Wydeville (or Woodville), Earl Rivers.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 27.4 x 19 cm, trimmed.
Colophon (leaf [1]/4v): Of these sayynges [sic] Cristyne was aucteuresse / ... In frenssh languaige was writen[n] this sentence / And thus Englished dooth hit rehers / Antoin Widevylle therl Ryvers. / Go thou litil quayer / and reco[m]maund me / Unto the good grace / of my special lorde / Therle Ryveris. for I have enprinted the / At his co[m]mandement. folowyng evry worde / His copye / as his secretaire can recorde / At westmestre. of feverer the .xx. daye / And of kyng Edward . the .xvii. yere vraye. Entrinted by Caxton In feverer the colde season.
Printed in Caxton's type 2:135B.
Collation: [1⁴]: 4 leaves.
Paper format: Chancery folio
Translated by Anthony Wydeville (or Woodville), Earl Rivers.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 27.4 x 19 cm, trimmed.
Binding
Modern blind-stamped full brown goatskin in an elaborate pastiche of an early style over paper boards (28 x 20 cm), sewn on 5 supports by Duprez-Lahey. Modern paper pastedowns and fly leaves; decorative endbands. Originally bound with PML 773 but rebound separately shortly after acquisition.
Variant title
Moral proverbs
Inscriptions/Markings
Hand decoration: Rubricated, red lombards and paragraph marks (backwards P-type with curled extenders). Annotations: A few marginal few word notations, in a different hand than in PML 773. French inscription/proverb: A mon premyer co[m]mencement soyt dyeu le pere omnypotent, amen. on dyt co[m]munement en ung proverbe que en ung caut four ny croyt poynt de la erbe. amen. dyco vobys. syuys la bonne [En four chaud ne croit point l'herbe, attributed to Jean Mielot, 15th century)], 16th century (verso of first rear blank).
Provenance
John (verso of first rear blank in PML 774); [Robert Harley (1661-1724), 1st Earl of Oxford, through inheritance to his son:(?)] Edward Harley (1689-1741), 2nd Earl of Oxford, the printed books from the Oxford library were sold by his widow, Henrietta Cavendish (1694-1755), in 1743 to: Thomas Osborne, Catalogus bibliothecae Harleianae III, no. 1558; unidentified price code: 3-0-0 (front endleaf 1 recto of PML 773); Bryan Fairfax (1676-1749), his sale, Prestgate (London), 6 April 1756, lot 2025, entire library purchased prior to sale by: Francis Child (d. 1763), through inheritance to: Victor Child Villiers (1845-1915), 7th Earl of Jersey, Osterley Park armorial bookplate (front pastedown of PML 773), Osterly Park shelf mark: Presse I. shelf d. No. ii (front pastedown of PML 773), Osterley Park sale, Sotheby's, 6 May 1885, lot 591, to Bernard Quaritch for £141 for: William Amhurst Tyssen-Amherst, Baron Amherst (1835-1909), armorial bookplate (front pastedown of PML 773), his sale, Sotheby's London, 3 Dec. 1908, lot 179, purchased prior to sale by: Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Amherst collection, 1908.
Classification
Catalog link
Department