Le premie volume de merlin.

Accession number: 
PML 531
Uniform title: 
Merlin (Prose romance)
Published: 
Imprime a Paris : Pour Anthoine Verart demourant deva[n]t nostre dame ..., lan mil.iiii.CCCC.iiii.xx.xviii [1498, but actually after July 1503]
Description: 
3 volumes : illustrations (woodcuts) ; 27 cm (fol.)
Credit Line: 
Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Notes: 

In three parts, each with xylographic title.
Xylographic title to part I damaged, lacking the final r in "premier".
Imprint from colophon, part III (Prophecies), leaf [con]6r: Cy finissent les prophecies merlin nouuellement imprime a paris lan mil.iiii.CCCC.iiii.xx.xviii. pour Anthoine Verart demourant deva[n]t nostre dame a lymage saint Iehan levangeliste/ ou au palays au premier pillier devant la chapelle ou len cha[n]te la messe de messeigneurs de parlement.
Date from ISTC and Bechtel. Vérard's address in the second edition is changed from "sur le pont nostre dame" (1498 edition) to "devant nostre dame," indicating that printing took place after July 1503.
This edition is largely a reprint of Vérard's 1498 edition with some typographic differences, retaining the original date at the colophon.
Signatures: part I (Premier volume): a⁶; A-X AA-PP⁶: 222 leaves, leaf PP6 blank; part II (Second volume): ā⁶; AAA-VVV AAAA-HHHH⁶ IIII⁴: 178 leaves; part III (Prophecies): A⁶ B²; a-o⁶ p⁸ q-z [et] [con]⁶: 160 leaves.
PML copy missing 4 leaves: IIII1-4, replaced in facsimile by William Morris, 8 June 1890 (inscription on front endleaf 1 recto).
PML 531 (parts I-II only) assigned as ChL 1534 but actually 1503 edition (not an incunable). Part III (Prophecies de Merlin) is PML 549.

Binding: 
18th-century French gilt-tooled red morocco over paper boards.
Variant Title: 

Second volume de merlin

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Rubrication not required (except part I, leaf A1r, unrealized and part II, leaf AAA1r, later addition). Annotations: No marginal notations in text. Contemporary French inscriptions, mostly illegible (part I, leaves a1v and a2r and part II, leaf ā1r).

Provenance: 
Unidentified Latin-Flemish inscriptions: "Iste liber apertinet" and "Vriendelicken gruet voirscreuen aen u my[n heer...]" (leaf ā1r, ex-info MEI editor's discussion group); Seyssel family (House of Savoy), marquis d'Aix à la Serra (Serraz), inscription: "De La Bibliothêque de Mr. Le Marquis D'aix a la Serraz" (leaf a2r); unidentified shelf marks: No 170 (crossed out), N 112 (front endleaf 1 recto); William Morris (1834-1896), Kelmscott House, Hammersmith, booklabel (front pastedown), brought the 3 parts together; Richard Bennett (1849-1930), purchased Morris's library in August 1896, armorial bookplate (front pastedown) and price code: sm/-/- +___ (front endleaf 1 recto); Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Classification: 
Department: