[Rarebooks] FS: Chapelain's "La Pucelle," 1656

[Powers Rare Books]

I can offer...

      CHAPELAIN, [Jean].  La Pucelle ou La France Delivree, Poëme 
Heroïque.  Leyden: Chez Jean Sambix, 1656.  Small 8vo (13.5 cm), 
contemporary limp vellum with manuscript titling on the spine (now 
faded).  [xlviii], 3-362, [25] pp.  Signature E slightly sprung with a 
small wormhole in the inner blank margin, modest dampstain to the upper 
corner of the last 30 or so leaves (not terribly obtrusive), a few old 
pencil notations in the margins.  A very good copy.
      A scarce pirated edition of Chapelain's poem on Joan of Arc with a 
fictitious imprint.  This was actually printed in France in imitation 
of the Elzevier edition published the same year, which included a 
frontispiece and two plates; this edition has no illustrations (see 
Willems 1686).  Only one copy of this edition on OCLC, at the 
University of Amsterdam.
      Jean Chapelain (1595-1674) was a man of letters and critic and a 
member of the original Academie Francaise.  He spent twenty years 
composing his epic "La Pucellle," the first twelve cantos of which were 
published in a lavish folio by Courbe in Paris, 1656 with beautiful 
engravings.  Failing to achieve popular acclaim, the final twelve 
cantos were not published until 1882.

$350 plus shipping.

Cheers,
Greg Powers
Powers Rare Books
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