Veterum Germaniae principum. Paris, Jean Foucher, 1540.

ONE OF THE EARLIEST FRENCH EX-LIBRIS STAMPS RECORDED

Title within woodcut border, criblé woodcut initials. 

16mo (116 x 81mm). 80ff (numbered ff.2-49, pp.50-80, 16ff. unnumbered, final leaf blank). Contemporary pale goatskin, covers with central ornament surrounded by triple fillet border and floral ornament at corners, with remnants of red(?), spine with four raised bands (general wear, some minor loss on upper and lower covers, remains of sticker either side of foot of spine).  

An attractive edition of Lupold of Bebenburg's account of the Christian virtues of early Germanic princes, owned by a member of the Carmelite order and with one of the earliest French ex libris stamps known. 

This, the third work of legal scholar and Bishop of Bamberg Lupold of Bebenberg (c.1297-1363), emphasises the role of Germany and the Empire as a bastion of Christendom, written in 1342 at a time of tension and antagonism between the papacy at Avignon and the Empire. 

The front paste-down bears the contemporary ownership inscription of 'Katharini', the male form of the name (Catharinus) who identifies himself with the Carmelite order, likely at Dijon, in line with further ownership marks. The crisp impression of the wood stamp on the verso of the free endpaper is that of the head of the Carmelite order in Dijon, Désiré Buffet, and is thought to be one of the earliest French ex libris marks, dated to 1558 and listed by Georges Saffroy as the fifth oldest in France (Saffroy, col. 311). In the roundel the text reads 'Gaudia.post fletu.tua Christe.parit.' around a heart with three sections containing a star, a tear and a cross. Later, eighteenth-century inscriptions on the title page and first page also indicate that it was part of the Carmelite library at Dijon. This series of inscriptions would suggest that this volume was in the possession of the religious order there for several centuries.  

Faint dampstaining at foot of leaves in early quires, otherwise a clean copy. 

BMSTC (French), 149. Graesse I, 319. Moreau V1875. OCLC - no copies in North America.

Ref: G. Saffroy, L’Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux, N° 1479. Vol. LXXVII (April, 1918), column 311.  

Stock Code: 230971