The book of fayttes of armes [and] of chyvalrye.

Accession number: 
PML 781
Author: 
Christine, de Pisan, approximately 1364-approximately 1431.
Published: 
[Westminster] : William Caxton, 14 July 1489.
Description: 
[144] leaves ; 28 cm (fol.)
Credit Line: 
Purchased with the Amherst collection, 1908.
Notes: 

Title from incipit (leaf A1r): Here begynneth the book of fayttes of armes [and] of Chyvalrye/ And the first chapytre is the prologue/ in whiche xprystyne [Christine] of pyse excuseth her self to have dar enterpryse to speke of so hye matere as is conteyned in this sayd book.
Colophon (leaf S5r): Thus endeth this boke which [christ]yne of pyse made [and] drewe out of the boke named vegecius de re militari [and] out of tharbre of bataylles...whiche boke beyng in fre[n]she was delyvered to me will[ia]m Caxton by the most crysten kynge [and] redoubted prynce my naturel [and] soverayn lord kyng henry the /vii/ kyng of englond [and] of frau[n]ce in his palais of westmestre the /xxiii/ day of Janyuere the /iiii/ yere of his regne [and] desired [and] wylled me to translate this said boke [and] reduce it in to our english [and] natural tonge/ [and] to put it in enprynte...Which translacyon was finysshed the /viii/ day of Juyll the sayd yere [and] enprynted the /xiiii/ day of Juyll next folowyng [and] ful fynyshyd/...
Printed in Caxton's type 6:120B.
Collation: [1]²; A-R⁸ S⁶: 144 leaves, leaf S6 blank.
Paper format: Chancery folio
Translated from the French by William Caxton.
A variant setting is known of sheet S2.5 with minor punctuation and spelling differences and two misprints in the colophon of the first state are corrected (cf. GW and note, BMC, CIBN).
PML copy leaf dimensions: 26.5 x 18 cm.
PML 781 wants leaf S6 (blank). PML copy has first state of leaf S2.5 with offset of leaf [1]/1r.

Binding: 
19th-century full brown goatskin, blind-stamped in a pastiche of an earlier style over paper boards (28 x 19.5 cm), sewn on 5 supports by J. Clarke (stamp on verso of first fly leaf). Plain paper pastedowns and fly leaves; decorative endbands; gilt edges.
Variant Title: 

The book of fayttes of armes and of chyvalrye

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Rubrication not required, printed initials and paragraph marks. Annotations: No notations in text.

Provenance: 
With table (leaves [1]/1-2) missing and replaced in facsimile (by Harris): Jacob Bryant (1716-1804), bequeathed at his death to: George Spencer Churchill (1766-1840), Fifth Duke of Marlborough and Marquess of Blandford, his sale (White Knights Library), Evans, 23 June 1819, lot 1569 for £44.2.0; Charles Meigh, his sale, Evans, 30 March 1831, lot 446 (citing Marlborough provenance), to: John Wilks (ca. 1793-1846), his sale, Sotheby, 12 March 1847, lot 694, to Boone for: Charles H. Crawford, his sale, Sotheby's, 20 Feb. 1854, lot 190 to: William Tite (1798-1873), pencil signature, 1854 (first fly leaf recto and verso) and round label with triple blue circle frame with inscription: Tite 98 (front pastedown), his sale, Sotheby, May 1874, lot 577, £190.0.0 to: Bernard Quaritch, replaced the facsimile leaves with those from a shorter copy [(possibly De Ricci, 28.36: Sir R. William Vaughn, who bequeathed it to the Misses Lloyd, who owned it in 1863) formerly belonging to Samuell Rowley (the actor/playwright?, d. 1624), signature (front endleaf 4 verso, originally belonging with added table leaves?) and bequeathed all his books to his brother Richard Rowley in his will (4 Dec. 1624, see Somerset, "New Facts Concerning Samuel Rowley," Review of English Studies NS 17 (1966): 293-297)], Rough List 21 (Aug. 1874), no. 77, General Catalogue (1875-1877), no. 165, cat. (1880), no. 12652, cat. 355 (1884), no. 21847, cat. (1887), no. 7358, to: William Amhurst Tyssen-Amherst, Baron Amherst (1835-1909), armorial booklabel (front pastedown) and shelf mark: Lib. D.6 (front pastedown), purchased from Quaritch, 1886, his sale, Sotheby's London, 3 Dec. 1908, lot 205, purchased prior to sale by: Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Amherst collection, 1908.
Classification: 
Department: