[ALEXANDER the GREAT]. The History of the Most Valiant, Nobl - Lot 31

[ALEXANDER the GREAT]. The History of the Most Valiant, Noble, Valiant, and Bold King Alexander the Great, Formerly King and Lord of the Whole World… Paris, Alain Lotrian, n.d. (circa 1530). Small quarto (192 x 132 mm), green morocco, double blind-stamped border on the covers with corner fleurons and a gilded oval center, ribbed spine decorated with fleurs-de-lis (Bedford). A very rare Gothic edition, the fourth, of the *Roman d’Alexandre* in prose. It presents the 13th-century French translation of the *Historia de Preliis*, composed by Leo of Naples three centuries earlier, which in turn was based on the hagiographic writings of Pseudo-Callisthenes (3rd or 4th century B.C.). A legendary account of Alexander III, known as the Great (356–323 B.C.), it combines elements of the chanson de geste, the political treatise, and the adventure novel. It was one of the bestsellers of the Middle Ages. All first editions of this text are extremely rare, and only five or six copies in total have been recorded from the first three editions published in Paris by Michel Le Noir (two) and in Lyon by Olivier Arnoullet between 1506 and 1530. This edition was unknown to Brunet. The title is printed in red and black and adorned with a large woodcut depicting Alexander surrounded by his soldiers, and the text contains eleven woodcut vignettes. A superb copy with very wide margins, without the slightest flaw. From the Huth Library, with an ex-libris. Copy cited by Bechtel (A-78). Only one copy cited by USTC (Chantilly, Musée Condé). Only one other appears to have appeared at public auction (Paris, June 16, 1995: “a very rare edition, unknown to bibliographers”).

Estimation:€8,000

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