The GIRLS' DOCTRINAL TO LEARN TO BE BIĒ SAIGES. Small booklet in-4, lemon jansenist morocco, 5 ribbed spine, interior lace, gilt edges (Cuzin). Bechtel, 242/D353 // Brunet, Supplément I-411 // Fairfax Murray, 129-374 // USTC, 38719. (4f.) / A4 / 22 lines, goth. car. / 88 x 125 mm. Very rare edition of this poem giving advice to young girls on how they should conduct themselves in life. We described at length in the previous entry this fourteenth-century work which inspired Chancer and of which there are many editions under slightly different names: Doctrinal des filles, 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... All these editions are rare and only a few copies are known. They all contain the poem of 34 quatrains of 8 syllables and some of them end with Les X commandemens de la loy in 20 verses and les commandemens de saincte esglise in 10 verses. The edition we are presenting must have been printed in Lyon or Geneva around 1525-1530, and is unknown to Baudrier. A comparison of this copy with the previous one (no. 45 in this sale) revealed some differences in certain verses. Thus we note in our edition : Girl to make good treasure Craīte ayez devãt les vieulx For : Girl to make good treasure Craīte have before your eyes Or Fille ne preste vos bouche En secret a nully qui soit For : Daughter, don't put your mouth on the line In a secret place for no one Our edition does not contain the commandments of the law or those of the church. It is decorated on the first leaf with a woodcut depicting a young girl holding a bouquet of flowers, and on the last leaf with 2 small woodcuts side by side, each depicting a sibyl. Fairfax Murray, to whom this copy belonged, indicates in his notice that these last two woodcuts were already used for another edition which would have been published in Geneva, by Köln, around 1525 and which he describes under number 374 of his catalogue: Merveilles advenir en cestuy vingt et sis. revelle par les dieux... Only one copy of this last edition is known, which now belongs to the Bourdel library and which we shall present in Part Three. A very fine copy of this bibliophilic rarity. Top margin a little trimmed on title. Provenance: Fairfax Murray (label, no. 129) and Henri Bordes (bookplate).