Jean Froissart | Cronycles of Englande, France, Spayne, Portyngale, Scotlande, Bretaine, Flanders. London, c.1535, William Morris’s copy - photo 1
Jean Froissart | Cronycles of Englande, France, Spayne, Portyngale, Scotlande, Bretaine, Flanders. London, c.1535, William Morris’s copy - photo 2
Jean Froissart | Cronycles of Englande, France, Spayne, Portyngale, Scotlande, Bretaine, Flanders. London, c.1535, William Morris’s copy - photo 3

Jean Froissart | Cronycles of Englande, France, Spayne, Portyngale, Scotlande, Bretaine, Flanders. London, c.1535, William Morris’s copy

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£ 9 525
Auction dateClassic
28.11.2023 14:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
Sotheby´s
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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Archive
ID 1076558
Lot 35 | Jean Froissart | Cronycles of Englande, France, Spayne, Portyngale, Scotlande, Bretaine, Flanders. London, c.1535, William Morris’s copy
Jean Froissart

Cronycles of Englande, France, Spayne, Portyngale, Scotlande, Bretaine, Flanders: and other places adioynynge. London: [R. Redman, ca. 1535] and Wyllyam Myddylton, [1542]; Rycharde Pynson, 1525

FIRST EDITION of volume 1, second edition of volume 2, 2 volumes bound in one, folio (320 x 224mm.), black letter, title within woodcut border, verso with large woodcut coat of arms of Henry VIII, woodcut initials, red crushed morocco gilt by W. Pratt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges, extremities slightly rubbed, title washed and pressed, upper right corner of title and next leaf supplied in facsimile, the bottom third of the penultimate leaf with the same kind of replacement, first gathering with narrow restoration at inner margin, some other margins with small, neat repairs (crossing the text on four leaves), the final leaf in excellent facsimile, using Marsh’s colophon from the second edition of 1563, worming to the last quarter of the text and elsewhere

WILLIAM MORRIS’S COPY. An attractively bound copy of an early printing in English of Jean Froissart’s essential European history, with a provenance connected to the modern private press movement. “Chronicles” is the principal source of our knowledge of all but the final phases of the Hundred Years War between England and France. Froissart (1337-c.1410) was born the year hostilities began and started his chronicle when only twenty, eventually continuing it to the year 1400.

The provenance here is of great interest. The three lesser-known owners whose bookplates appear at the front were significant collectors, but it is, of course, the appearance of the book label of William Morris (1824-1896) that makes this volume resonate with importance outside the intrinsic interest of its intellectual content. Designer, author, aggressive socialist, and founder of the Kelmscott Press, Morris is said by Paul Needham to have “possessed a library of higher quality than any other major English literary figure”. Moreover, Morris greatly admired Froissart, and Berner’s translation in particular, so much that he intended to publish—and in the last stages of his life began to print—the “Chronicles” as a companion to the Kelmscott Chaucer. In his “Ideal Book,” Morris said that “you cannot have a better text than old Berners’. It’s fine old English, and… no book that I could do would give me half the pleasure I am getting from the Froissart. I am simply revelling in it. It’s such a noble and glorious work, and every page as it leaves the press delights me more than I can say”. Just sixteen pages of the Kelmscott Froissart were printed (and given to personal friends) before Morris’ death.
Auction house category:Prints, graphics, books
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28.11.2023
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