Jehan DU PRÉ. Le Palais des nobles Dames auql a treze parcelles ou chambres principales : en chascune desquelles sont declarees plusieurs histoires tant grecques hebraicques latines que francoyses. Ensemble fictions & couleurs poeticques cõcernans les Vertus et louãges des Dames. In-8, red morocco, triple fillet, spine with 5 nicely decorated nerves, lining of the same morocco with fillets, roulettes and spandrels with small irons, double endpapers, edges gilt on marbling (Chambolle Duru). Bechtel, 251/D-431 // Brunet, II-899 // Rothschild, IV-2862 // USTC, 29407. (128f.) / a-o8, p6, q10 / 28 lines, goth. car. / 120 x 182 mm. First edition of this poem aimed at rehabilitating women's honour. Little is known about Jehan Du Pré. A gentleman from Quercy, he was a man-at-arms under the Grand Esquire de Genouillac at the Battle of Pavia, which saw France defeated and Francis I taken prisoner, resulting in the Treaty of Madrid and the loss of a quarter of France. Du Pré was wounded and robbed at Pavia and, as he wrote in a poem addressed to Queen Marguerite of Navarre, he owed his help only to Louise of Savoy, mother of Francis I : So damaging that follows before Pavia Without his help I would not survive For being destitute and destitute Suiz refreschi of a sum of money In his poem Palais des nobles dames, Jehan Du Pré laments the death of this princess, who died in 1531, which indicates that it was written after that date. The author uses the same device as that employed by Gratien Du Pont in his Controverses des sexes masculin et féminin when the latter wanted to denigrate the female cause, but for the opposite purpose, as Du Pré is writing his work to the glory of women. It was during a dream that he met Noblesse féminine. She takes him to her palace, where he visits the thirteen rooms and meets a succession of women or goddesses who have distinguished themselves by their science, chastity, fidelity, fertility... The work ends with a poetic piece entitled Dialogue nõ moīs utile que delectable : Auquel sont introduitz les dieux Jupiter et Cupido disputans de leurs puissances : et par fin ung Antidote et remede pour obvier aux dangiers amoureux, signed by Hugues Salel. Several of the pieces in the first part are followed by the signature Lelas and some, like Lachèvre, have believed that Hugues Salel is the real author of Le Palais des nobles Dames. We prefer the opinion expressed in the Rothschild catalogue, which sees Hugues Salel as the printer of Le Palais des nobles Dames. Title in red and black, large woodcut on verso depicting female nobility welcoming the author in front of her palace, a repeated large woodcut showing the palace garden and 12 small woodcuts depicting famous women. The second part contains a title frame made up of small juxtaposed woodcuts, a large woodcut depicting Hugues Salel about to be struck with an arrow by Cupid and a large historiated lettering. These woodcuts are crudely executed but of a great and beautiful drawing character (Viollet-Le-Duc). Small rubbing at top of one spine. Leaves a1, a2, q2 to q10 restored and partly rebacked. A very fine copy ruled in red ink in a fine lined binding by Chambolle-Duru. Provenance: Édouard Rahir (II, 6-8 May 1931, no. 496).