[Simon BOUGOUINC]. Lespinette du ieune prince Conquerant Le royaulme de bonne renommee Nouvellement Imprime a Paris. Cum privilegio. In-folio, lemon morocco, large mosaic interlacing decoration in black calf in Renaissance style, spine with 5 nerves decorated in the same way, lining in prairie green morocco with large small iron lace and armorial bookplate of the Mello library in the centre, double endpapers, edges gilt on marbling (Niedrée-1844). Bechtel, 96/B-355 // Brunet, II-1062 // Cioranescu, 4534 // Fairfax Murray, 61 // Macfarlane, 90 // Tchemerzine-Scheler, II-437 // USTC, 8325. (124f.) / a-v6, x4 / 43 lines on 2 columns, gothic car / 190 x 269 mm. Extremely rare first edition of a dialogue consisting of almost 20,000 lines, most of them ten syllables long. The author, Simon Bougouinc or Bougoinc, a French poet and prose writer of the 16th century, was valet to King Louis XII. He translated several treatises by Lucien, wrote plays and this allegorical poem, which he signed on the last page with an acrostic entitled Le nom de l'auteur en manière de supplication (The author's name in supplication) where the first letters read vertically Symon Bougouync. The poem tells the story of the author's encounter with a young prince taken by lovesickness. What follows is a long and adventurous journey that touches on a wide range of subjects, including love and virtue, of course, but also advice on life and education. They visit the bedside of the prince's father, who is dying and gives his son advice on society and the division of power between the nobility, the clergy and the labourers. Their steps then lead them to the Orchard of the World, where they encounter youth and madness before embarking on a ship, passing the perilous sea where the place of salvation lies, and finding on the seashore a hermit called the Father of Virtues and a page called Good Company. Without going into detail, the adventure continues with the conquest of the city of nobility by the prince and the duke of brave love, the coronation of the prince who becomes king of the kingdom of good fame and the coronation of the queen named the lady of good government or Reason. The work is lavishly illustrated with woodcuts, including the title with a large grotesque, 45 figures in the text, 15 of which take up the width of the page and 30 smaller ones, numerous initials and the printer's mark on the last leaf. A superb copy, finely bound by Niedrée, a Parisian bookbinder who was awarded a silver medal in 1844 for his bindings in the Renaissance style... (of) such accuracy of design... (that) they surpass the richest bindings in the superb libraries of Henri II, Cardinal de Farnerie, Henri III, Grolier and de Thou. Minor rubbing to one hinge and 2 places on the spine with spotting, a stain to the second board. 2 leaves (f2-f5) shorter in the lower margin by 7 mm. Provenance: Armand Bertin (ex-libris, absent from the 1854 sale), Baron Achille Seillière (supra-libris, II, 5-14 May 1890, no. 449) and Fairfax Murray (label, no. 61).