Commynes, Les memoires, Paris, 1581, contemporary gilt fanfare binding by the Atelier à la premiere palmette, the Philip III of Spain copy

COMMYNES, PHILIPPE DE. Les memoires de messire Philippe de Commines, chevalier, seigneur d'argenton, sur les principaux faicts et gestes de Louys onziesme et Charles huictiesme son fils, roys de France. Paris: Claude Bruneval for Jean de Bordeaux, 19 August 1581

PHILIP III OF SPAIN'S COPY IN AN ELABORATELY GILT FANFARE BINDING.

Philippe de Commynes (1447-1511) was a writer and diplomat at the courts of Burgundy and France. He was brought up at the Burgundian court and became squire to Charles the Bold, the son of Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, in 1464. When Charles became duke in 1467, he sent Commynes as ambassador to Brittany, England and Spain. In 1468, he negotiated an agreement between Charles and Louis XI at Péronne, leading Louis to convince him to desert Charles and enter his service. He later worked as negotiator and ambassador in the service of Charles VIII. His Mémoires, composed between 1489 and 1498, thus draw on a rich life in the service of several highly important historical figures. Published between 1524 and 1528, they are regarded as a key primary source for fifteenth-century European history. 

This volume is believed to have belonged to Philip III of Spain in his youth as Prince Philip of Austria. A manuscript note on the upper pastedown affixed with four wax seals and signed by Jehan Lhermite (1560-1622), courtier to Philip II and III of Spain, explains that the prince used this text in his studies of the French language, guided by Lhermite: 

“Ce livre appartient au Ser[enissi]me Prince d'Espaigne Philippe d'Austrice, qui par luy en forme d'estude (pendant que Jehan Lhermite, ayde de chambre du Roy son Pere Philippe le II, par son Royal commandement luy enseignoit a lire et parler la langue francoyse) a este leu, et releu, environ l'an de 1594. Jehan Lhermite”

A cryptographic grid on the upper endpaper may be in Philip III’s hand, perhaps an attempt at copying the large-format version affixed to the lower pastedown. 

This binding was executed by the "Atelier à la premiere palmette" and features several tools characteristic of this workshop, including Hobson, 1970, p. 27, fig. 16a and p. 28, fig. 27.