The DOCTRINAL FOR GIRLS. Small booklet in-4, lemon morocco, triple fillet, spine with 5 nerves nicely decorated with gilt small irons, inner lace, gilt edges (Trautz-Bauzonnet). Not cited by Bechtel (241 et seq.) or Brunet (II-781). (4f.) / [ ]4 / 24 or 26 lines, gothic car / 86 x 130 mm. Extremely rare and perhaps the only copy of an edition not referenced in bibliographies. The Girls' Doctrinal is a 14th-century work. In 1391, the English poet Chancer drew on it for his How the Goode Wif taught hir doughter. It was often published in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with a few variations, under the titles Doctrinal des filles a marier, Doctrinal des filles à elles très utiles, Doctrinal des filles pour apprendre a estre bien saiges, or Doctrinal des filles utile et proffitable. Composed of 34 quatrains in octosyllables, this piece gives young girls advice on virtue and behaviour: Daughter no bristle And leave vain pleasure behind Car oysivete loyseulx maine A perdicion langoureuse (...) Daughter, don't turn away from your mouth In a secret place for no one For whoever receives a gentle kiss Voulentiers du surplus saproche. At the end of this litany of warnings, we find, also in verse, Les X cõmandemens de la loy and Les cinq commandemens de saincte esglise. Bechtel describes thirteen Gothic editions under the various titles given above, including five incunabula, a list which he assumes to be incomplete. In fact, none of them corresponds to ours, which he has missed. Our edition is illustrated with a woodcut on the title depicting a young woman holding a vase. All editions of this Doctrinal are very rare. This copy comes from the library of the Count of Lignerolles. In the catalogue of his sale, it is mentioned that the copy had previously come from the library of Charles Nodier, whose bookplate has been preserved, but it has since been bound. The Nodier catalogue describes a copy bound in red morocco by Koehler, "a charming copy by M. Audenet". The Audenet catalogue describes a copy in red morocco by Closs. It would therefore have been the Audenet-Nodier copy before moving to Lignerolles, but the changes of binding and the conciseness of the contemporary entries do not allow us to confirm this. A very fine copy entirely ruled in red ink in a fine binding by Trautz-Bauzonnet. Provenance: Adolphe Audenet (? 2 April 1839, no. 201), Charles Nodier (? ex-libris, 1844 catalogue, no. 323) and Count Raoul de Lignerolles (II, 5-17 March 1894, no. 1119).