Beschreibung:

BONNOR, Honoré (also called Bouvet or Bonet, ca 1340-ca 1405)]. L'arbre des batailles. Paris: Antoine Vérard 8th June 1493.
BONNOR, Honoré (also called Bouvet or Bonet, ca 1340-ca 1405)]. L'arbre des batailles. Paris: Antoine Vérard 8th June 1493. Chancery 2 o (270 x 191 mm). Collation : a 8 (1 blank, 2r title, verso blank, 3r dedication to Charles VIII, 4r contents table, 8v blank); 2 a-n 8 o 6 p-s 8 t 6 (text with woodcuts and miniatures). PRINTED ON VELLUM. 146 leaves only (of 156; lacking b3, f2, k1.8, l4.5, q5, r6 [not r8 as reported to GW], s1, t6 colophon). Bâtarde types 117 and 119. 34 lines. Large presentation woodcut and two border-pieces (a3r), woodcut of a bishop writing in his study ( 2 a1r) and 8 smaller woodcuts (e3v, k7r, l1r, l3v and m4v [both altered by the artist], p8v, q8v, r1v), ALL ILLUMINATED IN VÉRARD'S SHOP, uncolored woodcut of Jacob's Ladder ( 2 a2v), 91 MINIATURES BY THE VÉRARD ATELIER, illuminated initials and chapter-marks (gold on maroon ground). (Slight worming in the first few leaves, some miniatures and initials flaked, discoloration of vellum in places.) Binding : contemporary French blind-tooled calf or goatskin over wooden boards, sides panelled by quadruple fillets, the compartments filled with a continuous repetition of two floral tools, brass center- and corner-pieces with fleur-de-lis ornament, brass frame for label and two pins for clasps on back cover, gilt edges, vellum endleaves, (two corner-pieces missing, one loose, clasps gone, front cover detached, spine repaired, wormed, other defects). Quarter-morocco box. Provenance : T.B. 7 Febr: 1625 (inscription); Henry Yates Thompson inherited from Joseph B. Yates 1856 (bookplate and inscription); [James Tregaskis 1850-1926 (copy cited in GW)]; Boies Penrose II (armorial bookplate); Abel E. Berland (bookplate, purchased from John F. Fleming, New York, November 1979). Third edition (following two Lyonnese editions of the early 1480s) of this important late-medieval work on all legal and ethical aspects of warfare, the conduct of war, treatment of prisoners, spoils, ransom, etc. Huizinga in Waning of the Middle Ages mentions the humanity of Bonnor's work. Its interest for the history of international law is significant. Some fifty manuscripts survive. The author dedicated the text and addressed his prologue to Charles VI, which the printer simply changed to Charles VIII. EXTREMELY RARE VELLUM ISSUE. Vérard issued de-luxe copies printed on vellum of all his historical and chivalric editions. He substituted most of the cuts with miniatures, illuminating those he kept. The Royal dedication copies were mostly painted by Jacques Besançon; in other copies it is not always easy to distinguish between the master and his assistants. Some 16 copies of Vérard's Bonnor are recorded, of which only 3 on vellum (the present, the Royal copy and the unilluminated MacCarthy Reagh copy, both in BnF). HC 3640; GW 4916; BMC VIII, 80; Macfarlane 29; Claudin II, 461; CIBN B-746; Van Praet Vélins du roi III, 114-115; Goff B-1023.