Giovanni Boccaccio / Pierre Eskrich - Le Decameron or The Decameron - 1558

RARE ILLUSTRATED EDITION 1558, of Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron", the masterpiece of the Tuscan writer. An early and important translation into French printed in Lyon, considered by J. Baudrier as "one of the masterpieces of Lyon printing of the 16th century" (IX, p. 248). The Decameron or Decamerone (work of 10 days), is a collection of one hundred short stories written by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) in the 14th century, probably between 1349 (the year following the Black Death epidemic in Europe) and 1351-1353. The book contains 10 beautiful wood engravings, one for each day attributed to the painter, draftsman and embroiderer Pierre Eskrich or Pierre Vase (1518-1590). Eskrich worked extensively with publishers and printers such as Guillaume Rondelet, Balthazar Arnoullet, Jean Pillehotte, Berthelemy Honorat, and for the bookseller Guillaume Rouillé or Roville (1504-1589) like in this edition. The work is well printed with 1002 pages, beautiful illustrations and dozens of initials that punctuate the 100 short stories. The binding is antique, solid, text and illustrations in excellent condition well engraved and intact, rare stains or imperfections as per photo. Rare French edition only 7 years after the first edition of 1551 by the same publisher.

The book opens with a beautiful profile portrait of the author Boccaccio and each of the 10 days has an illustration that precedes and summarizes the story. The translation from Italian to French was done by Antoine Le Maçon (1500-1559), a Royal councillor and treasurer for war, Le Maçon became private secretary to Margaret, Queen of Navarre. To please the princess, who loved letters and novels, he undertook a translation into French of Boccaccio's Decameron, the first made directly from the original Italian, which was first printed in Lyon by Rouillé in 1551, and in Paris by Olivier Harsy, in 1569. This translation retained the strength of the Italian in all the "offensive & erotic" episodes, none of which were bowdlerised.

The "Decameron" is considered one of the most important works of European literature of the 14th century, during which it exerted a vast influence on the works of other authors like "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), a work with a very similar structure and narrative frame, or Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), as well as the progenitor of prose literature in the Italian vernacular. In this book, Boccaccio depicts the entire society of the time in Florence, integrating the aristocratic ideal of life, based on courtly love, magnanimity and generosity with the values ​​of commerce: intelligence, resourcefulness, cunning. The book tells the story of a group of young people who stay outside of Florence for ten days, moving to a villa in the Florentine hills, to escape the black plague that is raging in the city, and who take turns telling each other stories that are often humorous and with frequent references to the bucolic eroticism of the time.

Description: in-16 size height 122 x width 80mm or 4.8 by 3.2 inches. 992 pages (poorly numbered 1002) plus 30 unnumbered pages for tables and index. Dark green morocco, ribbed spine, interior gilt roulette, red edges, 19th century binding, solid with some traces of wear and dents on the edges. Joints, boards and back in excellent condition. 10 beautiful wood engravings plus a Giovanni Boccaccio portrait. Antique autograph note on the flyleaf, title browned, top margin sometimes a little short with some titles partially filed, text and illustrations in excellent condition well engraved with great contrast and definition, rare stains or imperfections. RARE ILLUSTRATED EDITION ONLY 7 YEARS AFTER THE FIRST EDITION.

Title: Le Decameron de M. Iean Bocace florentin, traduict d'italien en françoys par maistre Antoine Le Maçon, conseiller du roy, & tresorier de l'extraordinaire de ses guerres... Published by Guillaume Rouillé or Roville, MDLVIII (1558) in Lyon. Text in French.

References: Baudrier, IX, p. 192 for the 1551 edition and p. 270 (1560 edition); USTC 24419 (1560 edition); Selbach, Vanessa (2011). "Artisan ou artiste ? La carrière de Pierre Eskrich, brodeur, peintre et graveur, dans les milieux humanistes de Lyon et Genève (ca 1550-1580)". Chrétiens et sociétés. XVIe-XXIe siècles (in French) Numéro spécial I): 37–55; Natalie Z. Davis, "Publisher Guillaume Rouillé: Businessman and Humanist", in R.J. Schoeck, ed. Editing Sixteenth-Century Texts, (Toronto, 1966) pp. 72-112.

Author: Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was sometimes simply known as "the Certaldese" and one of the most important figures in the European literary panorama of the fourteenth century. Some scholars (including Vittore Branca) define him as the greatest European prose writer of his time, a versatile writer who amalgamated different literary trends and genres, making them converge in original works, thanks to a creative activity exercised under the banner of experimentalism. Bocaccio wrote his imaginative literature mostly in Tuscan vernacular, as well as other works in Latin, and is particularly noted for his realistic dialogue which differed from that of his contemporaries, medieval writers who usually followed formulaic models for character and plot. The influence of Boccaccio's works was not limited to the Italian cultural scene but extended to the rest of Europe, exerting influence on authors such as Geoffrey Chaucer, a key figure in English literature, and the later writers Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega and classical theatre in Spain.

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