Le premier [-second] volume de merlin.

Accession number: 
PML 36390
Uniform title: 
Merlin (Prose romance). French.
Published: 
Nouvellement imprime a Paris : pour Anthoine Verart, lan mil.iiiic.iiii.xx.xviii. [1498]
Description: 
[7], ii-ccxi, [1]; [6], i-Clxxii; [8], i-clii (with mistakes in foliation) : illustrations (woodcuts) ; 33 cm (fol)
Credit Line: 
Purchased in 1940.
Notes: 

In three parts, each with xylographic title.
Imprint from colophon, part III (Prophecies), leaf [con]6r: Cy finissent les prophecies merlin nouvellement imprime a paris lan mil.iiiic.iiii.xx.xviii. pour anthoine verart demourant sur le pont nostre dame a lymage saint Iehan leva[n]geliste ou au palays au premier pillier devant la chapelle ou len chante la messe de messeigneurs de parlement.
Printed in Vérard's types 3*:115G, 3**:119G, and 7:114G.
Signatures: part I (Le premier volume de Merlin): a⁶ ;A-X AA-PP⁶: 222 leaves, leaf PP6 blank; part II (Le second volume de Merlin): ā⁶; AAA-VVV AAAA-HHHH⁶ IIII⁴: 178 leaves; part III (Les prophecies de Merlin): A⁶ B²; a-o⁶ p⁸ q-z [et] [con]⁶: 160 leaves.
Paper format: Chancery folio
Woodcuts in parts I-II on paper copies (vellum copies usually with spaces for added illumination); no illustrations in part III.
In three volumes: I) Le premier volume de Merlin. II) Le seconde volume de Merlin. III) Les prophéties de Merlin. Vérard published another closely-resembling edition, which from the state of the cuts and the address must be dated after July 1503. It is unclear whether any of the parts registered here or described in the references belong in fact to the 1503 edition (ISTC).
PML copy is part III (Prophecies) only, on vellum, with date abraded from colophon.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 31 x 22.5 cm.

Binding: 
17th-century French green velvet over wooden boards (33 x 23 cm), sewn on 5 supports for Clermont-Tonnerre. Plain vellum pastedowns and endleaves; decorative endbands; gilt edges. Brass furniture and clasps, with brass title plate; Clremont-Tonnerre armorial plaques missing from top and bottom boards.
Variant Title: 

Title in ISTC: Histoire de la vie, miracles, enchentemens et prophecies de Merlin

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Contemporary gilt initials and paragraph marks on red ground, gilt capital strokes. Ruling lines. Annotations: No marginal notations in text.

Provenance: 
Charles-Henri, comte de Clermont-Tonnerre (1571-1640), binding (see Gasnault, "Clermont-Tonnerre et la bibliothèque du couvent des Minimes de Tonnerre," p. 610, no. 6), in 1611 he donated his library to: Tonnerre, Couvent des Minimes; Étienne-Charles de Loménie, Comte de Brienne (1727-1794), purchased the Tonnerre Minims collection in 1788; James Edwards, Bibliotheca Parisiana, 26 March 1791, lot 375 to Laurent for £37.6.0 for: Thomas Johnes (1748-1816), at his death his library went to: Henry Pelham Archibald Douglas Pelham-Clinton, 7th Duke of Newcastle (1864-1928); Newcastle's Clumber Library sale, part I, 21 June 1937, lot 17 to H.P. Kraus; Pierpont Morgan Library, purchased from Kraus, Dec. 1940.
Classification: 
Department: