La Magnifica et triumphale entrata del Christianiss. Re di Francia Henrico secondo di questo nome fatta nella novile & antiqua Città di Lyone à luy & à la sua serenissima consorte Chaterina alli 21. di Septemb. 1548. Colla particulare descritione della Comedia che fece recitare la Natione Fiorentina à richiesta di sua Maesta Christianißima
Lyon: Guillaume Rouillé, (1 March) 1549. First edition in Italian.
Pot quarto (8 ¼” x 5 13/16”, 209mm x 148mm): A-O4 P2 [$3 signed; –A1]. 58 leaves, pp. [4] (title, privilege, 2pp. dedication), [112]. With 15 full-page woodcuts (after Bernard Salomon, integral with the text) and many 5-, 6- and 9-line initials.
Bound in contemporary stabbed vellum.
Rear joint repaired, and both end-papers renewed. Starting at the head. Scratches (intentional?), scuffs and soiling to the vellum. Puncture to the rear board. Ink sum to the rear cover. Excellent margins (with some lower deckles). Several quires tanned (evenly and mostly mildly), foxed (evenly and mostly mildly) or both: B, E, H, I, M-P. Filled loss to the lower fore-corner of P2, not affecting the text.
The joyous entry is the formal entry of a monarch (sometimes lower nobles or governors) into a city, celebrated almost always with a procession and usually with other festivities: fireworks, concerts, plays, and constructions of arches. They were particularly celebrated in the Dutch or French world, and became major events in the history of cities. The present work, published in Lyon but in Italian — a simultaneous edition was published in French — doubtless with a view to his Queen consort, Catherine de’ Medici — describes the entry of Henri II into Lyon on the 21st of September 1548. It is considered the first major French “Joyeuse Entrée” to be illustrated fully.
Maurice Scève (ca. 1501–ca. 1564) was the Lyonnais humanist poet charged with organizing the pageantry; his father had been the city’s envoy to the court of François I. The work chronicles the various celebrations and illustrates them with fifteen woodcuts, depicting costumes, edifices built and pageants (including a naval battle, no mean feat in a city 160 miles from the coast). Because of the prominence of Diane de Poitiers in the court as the king’s mistress (though she is not mentioned), the queen did not enter until the subsequent day. The Italian edition, unlike the French, includes the comedic verses (and a description of their performance) commissioned by the Republic of Florence, home of Catherine.
Adams H-259; Mortimer 201.
Item #JLR0552
Price: $15,000