Beschreibung:

Calendrier des Bergers]. Icy est le compost et kalendrier des Bergiers Nouuellement refait et austrement compose que nestoit parauant. Paris: Guy Marchant [in part for Antoine Vérard], 18 April 1493. Chancery folio, 257 x 185 mm. (10 1/8 x 7 1/4 in.), dark blue morocco , gilt ARMS OF BARON JÉRÔME-FRÉDERIC PICHON, the shield suspended from a tree (Guigard II, 398) at center of both covers within triple gilt fillet border, spine in seven gilt-panelled compartments, board edges and turn-ins gilt, edges marbled and gilt, bound by Bauzonnet-Trautz in 1844 (according to a ms. note by Pichon(?) on verso of front flyleaf: "rendu par Bauz(onn)et 8 Janvier 1844"), slight wear to corners, raised bands and extremities of spine, upper inner hinge cracked, old crease to gutter of title leaf, small repair to upper margin, 1/4-inch filled wormhole through A1-4, a few other tiny wormholes through first few leaves, five leaves (b8, C1, F2, F6, and X1) with repaired tears affecting text or woodcuts (affected letters skilfully touched up in ink), cropping to woodcut borders on A3r, F4v and L5v, approximately six leaves with small marginal repairs, a few woodcuts with traces of old ink doodling, occasional light staining or soiling, a few initials smudged, washed and pressed . Collation: A8 b8 C-E6 F-G8 X2 H8 I-N6. Contents : A1r title with metalcut printer's device (BMC III, Polain 128), A1v blank; A2r-A8v prologue, explanation of calendar, tables of moon- and sunrises, les ditz des mois , etc.; b1r-b8v Calendar, C1r-C3r table of solar and lunar eclipses from 1491 to 1549, C3v-C4r Latin verses; C4v-F2v part 2, L'arbre des vices and Les peines d'enfer ; F3r-G8v part 3, Science salutaire et l'arbre ou champ des vertus , X1r blank, X1v-X2r La tour de sapience (printed lengthwise across both pages), X2v [signed "H"] continuation of the text from G8v; H1r-H7r [part 4], La physique et regime de santé des bergiers ; H7v-L1v [part 5], L'astrologie des bergiers ; L2r-N5v [part 6], Varia, including the phizonomie [ sic , i.e., physiognomy] des bergiers , the calculation of the hours of the night, the mysteries of the night, Sebastian Brant's poem on the aerolite of Ensisheim (M1v), poems of the 12 months, les dits des oiseaux , the " ballades de la mort ", etc., N6r Le combat du limaçon , colophon, Imprime a Paris par Guiot Marchant...Lan: M.cccc.iiiixx et xiii Le xviiie iour Davril , N6v blank. 90 leaves, with signatures. Types: 5:180G (first line of title and heading on A8v, 2:107B (text), Maurand 1:99B (quire B), 6:112/113G (headings to woodcuts on F4v-F7r), 12:82B (inscriptions within woodcuts on F4v-F6v, F7v-F8r, and on the base of the Tour de Sapience ,X1v-X2r). 38-39 lines. Red printing in the Calendar (quire b). Large opening xylographic initial I (107 mm.), spaces for 7-line and smaller initials, the first two with guide-letters. 65 woodcuts in the text, several in two compartments, one (the colonne ardant on M1r) heightened in red ink by the rubricator, the calendar with 12 small woodcut head-pieces showing the occupations of the months, each lettered "KL", and 12 vertical woodcuts showing saints, printer's device on title and pages A2r and A3r within woodcut ornamental and figurative borders, 15 eclipse diagrams (each with four disks), other text diagrams. Rubricated: crude Lombard initials, paragraph marks and capital strokes supplied in red. THIRD EDITION OF THE FIRST FRENCH ALMANACH. First printed by Marchant in 1491, the enormously influential Calendrier des Bergers is a compendium of popular knowledge and beliefs of the late fifteenth-century. Following the calendar are sections on theology and morals, health, medicine (anatomy and phlebotomy), astronomy, astrology, the science of physiognomy, and miraculous occurences, consisting of a patchwork of traditional texts. That the elaborately and expensively printed Calendrier was intended for a wealthy urban audience rather than for a largely illiterate peasantry is evident not only from th