Miraulmont, Mémoires, Paris, 1584, contemporary Parisian brown morocco gilt

MIRAULMONT, PIERRE DE. Mémoires… sur l'origine, & institution des cours souveraines, & autres Iurisdictions subalternes, encloses dans l'ancien Palais Royal de Paris. Paris: Abel L'Angelier, 1584.

FINELY BOUND IN A STRICTLY CONTEMPORARY PARISIAN BINDING.

The author, Pierre de Miraulmont (b. 1550), is described in La Croix du Maine's seminal French bio-bibliography (for which see lot 181 in the present sale) as "natif d'Amiens en Picardie, Conseiller du Roy en la chambre du Thresor à Paris, &c. homme docte & grand rechercheur de l'antiquité", with the entry citing this work ("de fort beaux Mémoires sur l'origine & institution des Cours souveraines... encloses dans l'ancien Palais de Paris") in superlative terms as his principal literary contribution.

8vo (180 x 110 mm). Roman and italic type. Collation: ã⁸ ẽ⁴ (ẽ4 blank) A-Y⁸ (Y7,8 blank): 188 leaves. Woodcut arms of Hurault de Cheverny to verso of title-page, decorative woodcut initials and head-pieces, ruled in red throughout. (Light dampstaining at upper margin of first half of textblock.)

Binding: Strictly contemporary Parisian brown morocco (183 x 116 mm), multiple gilt fillets around sides, large cornerpieces à la fanfare and feuilletés, semé of fleurs-de-lys surrounding central cartouche, with fleurs-de-lys in compartments of central cartouche, flat spine decorated similarly to central cartouche, traces of two pairs of violet silk ties, edges of boards decorated, plain edges gilt, in a black morocco solander case. (A few minor repairs to spine ends, 25 mm crack to head of spine, upper cover slightly warped, ties lacking.)

Provenance: Henri Béraldi (1849-1931), booklabel, his sale, Paris, May 1934, lot 22, to—Maurice Burrus (1882-1959), bookplate , manuscript shelflabels to endleaf, and loosely preserved clipping from Béraldi sale catalogue (annotated in Burrus' hand at left-hand margin), by descent until sold, Christie's, Paris, 15 December 2015, lot 139. Acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. References: USTC 29131; Jean Balsamo & Michel Simonin, Abel L'Angelier & Françoise de Louvain, 1574-1620 (Geneva 2002), p. 197 no. 118 (this copy)