[FONTAINE (Charles)]. FIGURES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Lyon, Je - Lot 54

Lot n° 54
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200 - 300 EUR
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[FONTAINE (Charles)]. FIGURES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Lyon, Je - Lot 54
[FONTAINE (Charles)]. FIGURES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Lyon, Jean de Tournes, 1556. 12mo, havana calfskin, covers decorated with a roulette border featuring foliage motifs and, in the center, a gilded diamond-shaped fleur-de-lis; ribbed spine with gilded title, edges speckled with red (late 19th-century binding); (52) ff.; signatures A-F⁸, G⁴. Skin flaps at the top of the front cover, worn at the clamps. Handwritten bookplate “André / Comte d’Herbemont / Charmois” on the first blank leaf. SECOND EDITION of this work, which can be considered a BOOK OF EMBLEMS, published two years after the 1554 edition. It is one of the most captivating illustrated books to have come from the Lyon presses of Jean de TOURNES. The six-line verses accompanying the illustrations are by the Lyon poet Charles FONTAINE (1514–1564/1570). The illustrations consist of 96 woodcut figures by Bernard SALOMON, known as “Le Petit Bernard,” three of which are repeated. The illustrations depict the major episodes of the New Testament, from the Gospels through the Acts of the Apostles to the Book of Revelation. Each scene is headed by its scriptural reference and followed by an explanatory six-line verse. A CHARMING COPY in an elegant, decorated late 19th-century/early 20th-century binding, from the library of Count André d’Herbemont at the Château de Charmois in Mouzay, Meuse. ¶ Adams-Rawles-Saunders, "A Bibliography of French Emblem Books," F.182, for the first edition—USTC, no. 11319—Cartier, 269 for the 1554 edition—Mortimer, 85.
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