[Le ROMAN de RENARD]. DOCTOR OF MISCHIEF, MAISTRE REGNARD, demonstrating the tricks & cunning he uses towards people. A pleasant & recreational story & no less fruitful. In-16, fawn Russian leather, triple fillet, spine with 5 small nerfs nicely decorated, interior roulette, gilt edges (J. Mackenzie). Brunet, IV-1223 // Missing from Frère // Graesse, VI-82 // USTC, 49577. (96f.) / A-M8 / 74 x 103 mm. A very rare first edition of Jean Tenessax's French translation of this essential novel, which recounts the tricks and mischief of Maistre Regnard, a cunning fox who uses tricks and mischief that have become legendary, especially against the wolf Isengrin. The fable of the fox and Isengrin was already known in Provence at the beginning of the 13th century, but its origins go back even further, as Latin poems on this fable were composed in the south of the Duchy of Flanders in the middle of the 12th century. The first French edition was published in Gothic type, without date, by Philippe Le Noir, who did not start printing until 1521. The translator Jean Tenessax is named at the beginning of the work. This may have been followed by another edition published in Lyon by Arnoullet in 1528, of which we have found no trace, and then comes the edition we are presenting here, which appears to be the second edition and the first printed in round type. The name of the translator no longer appears. It bears the printers' mark on the title and is decorated with 25 small woodcuts, actually 13 engravings, 7 of which are repeated. The engravings are unsigned and touchingly naive. The edition is very rare, and the USTC lists only one other copy, in the Musée Condé in Chantilly. Binding unevenly faded. Title repaired in upper margin.