QUADRAGÉSIMAL SPIRITUEL (Le), Paris, widow of Michel Le Noir, s.d. [circa 1521]. Small in-4 of [28] ff, fawn calf, double gilt fillet with fleurons at the corners and in the centre, spine decorated with gilt fleurons, gilt edges (Early binding). One of only two editions of this very rare and curious book, which assigns a spiritual meaning to all Lenten dishes: salad, broad beans, lamprey, saffron, oranges, bread, etc. Vicaire notes that this is not a cookery book but a theological work in which all the comparisons used by the author are borrowed from the culinary arts. In fact, he says, there is some advice on how to run the house at Easter time, but always accompanied by moral or spiritual considerations. The Parisian bookseller Jean Janot published another undated edition, which Guy Bechtel puts at between 1510 and 1521. The present edition, published around 1521, was shared with Jean Saint-Denis, some of whose copies bear the address of the Crowned White Rose. It is decorated with three woodcuts, including a vignette on the title and two large full-page plates on the verso and last leaf. The last, very curious, depicts a banquet served by two horned devils. Two superb 15th-century illuminations have been mounted on the volume's flyleaves: a large painted lettering with a blue background depicting the Ascension, with the Virgin Mary and the Disciples (115 x 110 mm), and a large lettering E depicting two angels, with a gold background (130 x 110 mm). Restored and washed copy, with paper repairs affecting some characters and the edge of the final engraving (re-established by hand); 16th-century boards remounted on a modern pastiche binding, endpapers renewed, a few small losses to the second illumination. Margins trimmed short with some damage to signature at foot. Moreau, III, n°212 - Bechtel, Q-2 - Brunet, IV, 993 - Vicaire, 719.