CRENNE, Hélisenne de.

Lot 1021
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Estimation :
6000 - 8000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 20 220EUR
CRENNE, Hélisenne de.
Painful Anguish that comes from love. Lyon, Denis de Harsy, [circa 1539]. 4 parts in one volume in-12 (158 x 100 mm) of 170 ff.n.ch. of which 64 for part I, 72 for part II, 34 for part III, 8 for the Ample narration; red morocco, double gilt filet framing, spine ribbed, gilt edges (Bauzonnet). Very rare first edition from Lyon. The writings of Hélisenne de Crenne, pen name of Marguerite Briet, from Abbeville in Picardy, represent the largest female corpus printed during the first half of the 16th century (ahead of those of Marguerite de Navarre and the mysterious Jeanne Flore). She is considered both as a renowned scholar in the humanist tradition of the Renaissance, as a precursor of the sentimental, psychological and epistolary novel, and as a pioneer of feminism. All that is known of her is that she married around 1530 a certain Philippe Fournel, sieur du Crenne, from whom she legally separated in 1552 and then went to live near Paris. This work, considered to be the first French novel in the modern sense of the word, is written as an autobiography and is divided into three parts. "The space devoted to interior analysis makes it the first psychological novel in French literature... a luminous example of the poetic prose of the first half of the Renaissance century. "(Le nouveau dictionnaire des oeuvres, I, 248). This charming Lyon edition is adorned with 60 woodcut vignettes in the text, the title of each of the three parts is adorned with the great mark of Harsy showing Daedalus. This Lyon pirate edition served as a model for all subsequent Parisian editions. Rare complete copy of the last 8-sheet booklet containing the Ample narrative. Gay-Lemonnyer attributes this text to Jean Dorat. Provenance: Firmin-Didot (ex-libris, sale III, 424) - Auguste Garnier (ex-libris). Gültlingen, IV, 152, no. 185; Baudrier, Supplement, I, 2; see long article by Christine Buzon and William Kemp, in: L'émer
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