OROSE (Paul). THE FIRST - SECOND VOLUME OF OROSE. Paris, Anthoine Vérard, le 3ème jour de Juing , 1509. 3 parts in 2 volumes in folio of [12]-228-2bl. ; [4]-117 ; 46 leaves, stiff covered vellum, boards decorated with gilt fillets and a Du Seuil-style frame, red tr. Very fine 2-column Gothic printing by Gillet Couteau for Anthoine Vérard, with French translation by Jean Courtecuisse and Claude Seyssel. A rare edition of this history which is not, as one might think, a simple translation of Orose, but a historical compilation extracted from various authors, written in the 14th century and later retouched by an anonymous person who dedicated it to King Charles VIII. It is complete with the Book of the Four Virtues and the Golden Words (part 3). The rich woodcut illustrations include 2 large decorated title letters, numerous mid-page illustrations (repeated) and more than a hundred pictorial vignettes (sometimes repeated), punctuated by a very large number of ornamental letters of all kinds, Leaf 51 of volume 1 is missing. Leaves 52 and 53 come from another sixteenth-century Gothic edition. A few leaves repaired in the margins, including the last leaf of volume 2 with a few letters missing. Several handwritten annotations and signatures from the period. The large lettering which opens the first volume is a reproduction made at the time of the binding. The copy is beautifully bound in gilt vellum in the first half of the 20th century. Several stained leaves (USTC 26170) (Brunet IV, 238) (Moreau I, n°147) (Bechtel O-319, wrong collation).