Beschreibung:

GUILLAUME DE LA PERRIERE Le Theatre des bons engins, auquel sont contenus cent emblemes . Paris: [Denis Janot, 1539]. 8vo. (16.8 x 10.1cm), collation: A-N 8 O 4. Italic and roman type, woodcut architectural title border with Janot's mongram on a shield at the head and two lovers at foot, 101 woodcut emblems each facing a page of verse, nearly all pages within 4-part borders of varying designs, ruled in red throughout (pronounced waterstain at lower blank margins, title lightly browned, occasional spotting, E7 with hole at margin slightly affecting red rule). [bound with:] ALCIATI, Andrea. Les emblemes ... mis en rime francoyse et puis naguerres reimprimé avec curieuse correction . Paris: Christian Wechel, 1540. 8vo. (16.8 x 10.1cm), roman type, woodcut title device, 113 woodcut emblems attributed to Mercure Jollat (lacks last leaf with printer's device, lower margins waterstained throughout). 2 works in one volume, 18th-century French olive morocco, triple gilt fillets, gilt spine compartments with repeated floral tools, gilt inner dentles, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Provenance : early 19th-century ms note on Marguerite de Valois, queen of Navarre, the dedicatee of the first work, on front blank -- purchased from Davis and Orioli, London, 27 July 1936, for £35. FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF LA PERRIERE'S THEATRE , THE SECOND EMBLEM BOOK TO BE PUBLISHED AND THE FIRST PRINTED BOOK TO INCLUDE AN ILLUSTRATION OF TENNIS. The flared form of the racket handle can be clearly seen in the second of two tennis illustrations. The borders in the Italian style are composed of grotesques, foliation and cherubic heads, and some contain the Janot thistle. Confusion has been caused since there were as many as four undated Janot editions to include a privilege note dated 31 January, 1539. Praz reversed the order of the Janot editions proposed by Brunet, identifying this as the first, a view subsequently upheld by Landwehr. Alciati's well-known Emblematum libellus , first published in 1534, was the only earlier emblem book. The fashion for emblem books in the 16th and 17th centuries coincided with the great era of real tennis, and many of the earliest illustrations of tennis occur in these small books which brought pictures and poetry together to demonstrate a moral point. Indeed, La Perrière employed not one but two tennis emblems, the suggestion behind both being that advice which holds good for tennis is also applicable to general conduct. The first (no. 5) shows a single player in a court with a tiled penthouse behind him, the verses opposite pointing out that a good player does not let a volley go past in the hope of a fortunate rebound: "Qui pour le bond delaisse le vollee/Ne fut iamais tenu ferme ioueur". A second emblem (no. 41) shows two fierce-looking players on court with the ball between them. In this case, the ball which is sent back and forth suggests the aggressive manner in which most arguments are conducted on and off court. According to the accompanying epigram, the tennis player who hopes for relaxation cannot expect an easy time. Even the most idle person will hit back the ball hard, insult will be returned for insult, and there is no worse game than one which degenerates into mockery and raillery. La Perrière's Theatre is unquestionably rare. Landwehr records copies of the first edition only at the BnF and the BL. The Schäfer copy of the second edition, sold by Sotheby's London, 27 June 1995, lot 124, is the only copy which ABPC records at auction over the past thirty years. Landwehr Romanic Emblem Books 445 & 22; Praz Emblem-Books p. 394; Vinet 836; Michael Bath, "Tennis in the Emblem Books" in The Royal Court Game , ed. L. St. J. Butler and P.J. Wordie (1989), pp. 44-52; Garnett p. 288; not in Henderson and unknown to Whitman.