[MABRIAN]. Histhoire singuliere & fort recreative contenant la reste des faitz & gestes des quatre filsz Aymon Regnault Allard Guichard et le petit Richard, et de leur cousin le subtil Maugis... Semblablement la cronicque & hystoire du chevaleureux preux & redoubte prince Mabrian, roy de Hierusalem et de Inde la maiour... Paris, Jacques Nyverd for Galliot Du Pré, [circa 1525]. Small folio, red morocco, triple gilt fillet, ornate spine, inner lace, gilt edges (18th century binding). A very valuable first edition of this novel of chivalry, of which only three copies are known. It is undated, but the privilege granted to Galliot Du Pré for three years, reproduced on the verso of the title, is dated 14 November 1525. The volume is printed in Gothic lettering on two columns and illustrated with 32 large woodcuts, mostly mid-page, plus a handsome title frame bearing the name of Galliot Du Pré and, on the verso of the last leaf, the typographical mark of Jacques Nyverd. Mabrian's novel forms the final part of the epic cycle of Renaut de Montauban, also known as the Quatre fils Aymon, which recounts the deeds of the four brothers Allard, Renaut, Guiscard and Richard, and their cousin Maugis d'Aigremont, during the reign of Charlemagne. This is a prose setting of a Burgundian chanson de geste from 1462, produced before 1480 by Guy Bounay and Jehan Le Cueur, based on the prologue to the edition. These two authors took great liberties with the text of the earlier prose manuscripts, perhaps, argues François Suard, because they "were able to resort directly to the lost verse model" of the chanson de geste. The novel focuses on the adventures of Renaut de Montauban's grandson, the knight Mabrian (or Mabrien). This sequel to Renaut de Montauban was very popular in the 16th century, with at least ten editions published in Paris and Lyon between 1525 and 1581. It is the only known copy in private hands. Only two other copies of this first edition are known to exist: the first, long considered to be the only surviving copy, is now in the BnF (Rés. M-Y2-896), after having belonged to the Hibbert, Heber and Gougy libraries (1934, I, no. 175); it has "clumsily coloured figures" and was described as "in very poor condition" in the Bulletin du bibliophile in 1858. The other known copy is in the British Library (C.34.l.21). It is bound in late 19th century Jansenist morocco. A choice copy, remarkably preserved and finely bound in red morocco by a French master of the mid-eighteenth century, from the Gaignat (1769, n°2292) and Wodhull (1886, n°1644) libraries. Louis-Jean Gaignat (1697-1768) was a councillor-secretary to the king and receiver general of the consignations of the requests of the Palace; above all, he was one of the greatest bibliophiles and lovers of paintings during the reign of Louis XV, so much so that the catalogue of his library was published by Guillaume-François Debure dit le jeune as a "Supplement to the Bibliographie instructive", the imposing bibliographical directory whose seven volumes he had published between 1763 and 1768. At the Gaignat sale, the copy was sold for 20 livres to Guillaume Debure dit l'aîné, first cousin of the bibliographer and also a bookseller, who acquired a large part of the collection on behalf of the Duc de La Vallière. The present work, however, was not intended for him: La Vallière only ever owned the second edition of Mabrian's novel (1783, II, no. 4034). In fact, by the end of 1770, our copy had passed to England: it was listed in a catalogue by the English bookseller Thomas Payne (A Catalogue of upwards of twenty thousand volumes... being several libraries lately purchased..., no. 799, with the remark "eleg. relié en maroq. dorée sur les tranches"). On one endpaper are three handwritten annotations by the bookseller: a sale price (£3 3s.), a bibliographical reference (Panzer v. 8 p. 94 N°1494) and a note (date end of Privilege on the reverse of the Title). The copy was then acquired from Payne by the collector Michael Wodhull (1740-1816), whose manuscript bookplate on one endpaper is dated Dec. 1st 1770, as well as the references Payne's sale / Bib[liographie] Instr[uctive] N°3811 / & Bibl[iothèque] Gaignat N°2292 and, at the end of the volume, the date July 12th 1797. The first translator of Euripides' works into English, in 1782, Michael Wodhull was one of the great British bibliophiles of the time, and a connoisseur in particular of sixteenth-century French prints. On his death, his books were kept at his estate at Thenford House, where they were not removed until 1886, when the Severne family offered them at auction at Sotheby's. The copy appears in the catalogue of this sale under no. 1644, with the indication: "fine copy in red morocco, gilt edges, by Derome... First edition of an excessively rare romance of chivalry in prose. Heber's copy sold for £15 15s. It sold for £22 10s. At the turn of the twentieth century, the copy was back in France, having been offered by Édouard Rahir in Bulletin Morgand no. 53 (June 1901, no. 40943), with its inventory number on one of the endpapers. It was then acquired by a French collector, in whose family it has remained to this day. This is the first time that this precious first edition has been presented on the market since 1953, when the BnF acquired the Gougy copy from the Charles Bosse bookshop. Without the white leaf AA6. Spine very slightly lightened with tiny rubs, title frame trimmed a little too short by the binder, worm hole filled in the margin of the last three leaves, a few discreet scattered freckles. Debure, Bibliographie instructive, III, n°3811 and Supplément, I, n°2292 - Brunet, III, 1264 - Bechtel, R-137 - Moreau, III, n°894 - Woledge, n°143 - Colombo Timelli, a.o., Nouveau répertoire de mises en prose, 736-738, n°1 - USTC 95074.