Bod-Inc: L-027
Lancelot Du Lac
La première partie de Lancelot; La seconde partie de Lancelot [French].
Analysis of Content
aa2r [Tables of contents for the two parts.]
aa4v ‘Le prologue.’ Incipit: ‘[C]ombien que les anciennes histoires ne sont pas de pareille . . .’
aa5v [Introduction and summary of the first chapter.] Incipit: ‘[C]y commence le liure fait et compose a la perpetuation de memoire . . .’
a1r La première partie de Lancelot. Incipit: ‘[E]n la marche de Gaule et de la petite Bretaigne auoit anciennement deux roys freres germains . . .’ The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances III: Le Livre de Lancelot del Lac Part I, ed. H. Oskar Sommer (Washington, 1910), 3-430, and Vulgate Version IV: Le Livre de Lancelot del Lac Part II, ed. Sommer (Washington, 1911), 3-155(?), from which this incunable edition varies, often significantly; for the conspectus between this edition and that of Sommer see the table in Vulgate Version I: Lestoire del saint graal, ed. H. Oskar Sommer (Washington, 1909), p. xxxii. Lancelot do Lac: The Non-Cyclic Old French Prose Romance, ed. Elspeth Kennedy, 2 vols (Oxford, 1980), II 8 refers to this incunable edition, although her text seems to be closer to that of Sommer's edition (both editions being derived mainly from manuscript sources), than to this incunable edition. See also Brian Woledge, Bibliographie des romans et nouvelles en prose française antérieurs à 1500, Société des Publications Romanes et Françaises, 42 (Geneva and Lille, 1954), 71-9, at 77, no. 96/1, and Brian Woledge, Bibliographie des romans et nouvelles en prose française antérieurs à 1500. Supplément 1954-73, Société des Publications Romanes et Françaises, 130 (Geneva, 1975), 50-9, at 54, no. 96.
z3v [Introduction to the second part.] Incipit: ‘[A]insi se dit le compte est Lancelot perdu que nul n'en scait nulles vrayes . . .’
z4r La seconde partie de Lancelot. Incipit: ‘[A]insi alla par tout enquerant la dame du lac nouuelles de Lancelot tant que a vne veille . . .’ Vulgate Version IV: Le Livre de Lancelot del Lac Part II, ed. Sommer (Washington, 1911), 155(?)-362, and Vulgate Version V: Le Livre de Lancelot del Lac Part III, ed. Sommer (Washington, 1912), 3-105 (Kennedy), with variations.
Imprint
Imprint: Rouen: Jean le Bourgeois, 24 Nov. 1488. Folio.
Collation
Collation: aa4+1 a–m8 n6 o–z A–I k8 L4.
Illustrations: Woodcuts: see BMC and Claudin.
References
ISTC: il00033500
Hain: HC (+ Addenda) 9849 (I); C 3474 (I);
BMC: BMC VIII 393;
Proctor: Pr 8769;
Others: CIBN L‑29; Claudin I 273-4; Hillard 1186; Sheppard 6808-9. Facsimile: Lancelot du Lac, vol. 1, with introductory note by C. E. Pickford (London, 1973, repr. 1977).
LCN: 14452603, 14452700
Copies
Copy number: L-027(1)
Binding: Eighteenth-century(?) mottled calf; rebacked.
Size: 378 × 287 × 57 mm.
Size of leaf: 365 × 275 mm.
In the shield in the lower printed border on z3v a head-and-shoulders drawing of a lady.
Provenance: Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester (c.1460-1526); faded inscription in pencil on p1r: ‘C. Somerset $'; coat of arms supplied in faded crayon in the shield in the lower printed border on aa5v: quarterly 1 and 3 France Modern, 2 and 4 England, within a bordure compony, over all a bendlet sinister. Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753)?; possibly the copy listed in the Benefactors' Register II 49 as given by Sloane between 1698 and 1700.
SHELFMARK: Auct. 2Q 4.4.
Copy number: L-027(2)
Wanting aa1 containing the woodcut of King Arthur with his Knights at the Round Table, also a1.8, and gathering x.
The missing text of gathering a is supplied by two leaves from an edition of Verard's, the ‘excess' text on the verso of the second leaf being covered over with part of a woodcut. The first leaf bears three coats of arms: the first, on the recto, is in a shield in the printed border, and is quarterly 1 and 4 gules, a castle or, and 2 and 3 argent a lion rampant of the first; the second, within the body of an initial ‘C' on the verso, argent, a lion rampant gules, within a bordure compony of the second and azure [colours uncertain]; and the third, in the lower margin of the verso, quarterly azure and argent, over all a cross gules. Another leaf, apparently the one originally following these two, is now attached to the recto of the front endleaf and contains a note by Douce. These leaves were almost certainly inserted by Douce. The woodcuts and borders on aa5v and z3v have been omitted in this copy. Many leaves repaired.
Binding: Eighteenth-century mottled calf with gold-tooled spine and turn-ins, gilt-edged leaves, and marbled pastedowns.
Size: 331 × 252 × 61 mm.
Size of leaf: 325 × 245 mm.
Some early marginal annotations in French.
Two- to four-line initials supplied in interlocked red and blue decorated with red and blue pen-work, and with extensions into the margins; other two-line initials and paragraph marks supplied in red or blue.
Provenance: Heavily cancelled ownership inscription on aa1r. Francis Douce (1757-1834); armorial book-plate. Bequeathed in 1834.
SHELFMARK: Douce 290.
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