VILLEHARDOUIN, Geoffroy de.

Lot 1251
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Estimation :
1500 - 2000 EUR
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Result : 5 687EUR
VILLEHARDOUIN, Geoffroy de.
History of Geoffroy de Villehardouyn, mareschal of Champagne & de Romenie; the conquest of Constantinople by the barons of François associated with the Venetians, the year 1204. On the one hand in its old language; & on the other hand in a more modern and intelligible one by Blaise de Vigenère. Paris, Abel L'Angelier, 1584. In-4 (238 x 155 mm) of 14 ff.n.ch., 186 ff.ch.; bronze morocco, double gilt fillet framing, unidentified coat of arms (OHR 2372), smooth spine, compartments decorated with an iron representing a peony, gilt edges (contemporary binding). First edition ? of a precious work under the double historical and grammatical report ? (Brunet). Carefully printed by Abel L'Angelier one finds here the original text printed opposite the version adapted by Blaise de Vigenere. ? With Villehardouin's chronicle, prose makes its entry into French literature. Using a language that is still not very flexible, and which has only become accustomed to poetic usage, the chronicler has forged a new instrument, better adapted to the demands of historical narration, despite a syntax that is still hesitant and often clumsy, but whose progress will continue to grow until the end of the Middle Ages. ? (Gillette Tyl-Labory, Dictionnaire de lettres françaises, le moyen âge ). Here is the account of the events of the Fourth Crusade, from the preaching of Foulques of Neuilly in 1198, to the death of Boniface of Montferrat. "First edition. This chronicle is the first account of the taking of Constantinople in 1204 by the French and Venetian crusaders... It is the basic source for our knowledge of the fourth crusade, written by a participant in one of the most tragic events in Byzantine history. In itself it is a classic account of the reality of French medieval chivalry" (Blackmer). A rule and wide-margined copy? of one of the books of Middle Ages both as a literary work and as a historical source? (A. Pamphilet, Historians
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