Homer - Homerus. Les dix premiers livres ... Paris, 1545.
Les dix premiers livres de l'Illiade d'Homere, prince des poètes : traduit en vers françois par M. Hugues Salel. Paris: J. Loys for V. Sertenas, 1545.
Item Number: 21626 Authenticity Guarantee
Category: Books > Classics - Antiquity
FIRST EDITION of Salel's translation, roman type, small italic side-notes, translator's note in verse to the reader and errata on G4r, colophon on verso with Loys's large woodcut device, title woodcut of Homer as the Fountain of Poetry (143 x 100 mm.), ten woodcuts at the head of each book, the first the same size as the title cut, the remainder smaller (approx. 86 mm. square) and set within the same four-piece ornamental arabesque border, the upper border containing the French royal arms, the lower a small coat-of-arms (possibly Salel's), fine 8-line criblé initials.
The Lyonese poet Hugues Salel died in 1553 before finishing his translation of the Iliad, the second in French (preceded by J. Samxon's translation, printed by Jean Petit in 1530); it was completed by Amadis Jamyn and published in its entirety in 1580. The woodcuts, which harmonize perfectly with their borders and with the open leaded roman text, are clearly influenced by Geoffrey Tory with their lack of shading and outline depiction of the figures, and may be the work of the "Maître à l'F gothique" (Brun's appellation), Mortimer's "F" artist (sometimes identified as the Lyonese printer François Fradin), whose woodcuts illustrate several of Denys Janot's imprints. "The italianate style introduced into the French book by Tory, and continued in volumes from the press of Denys Janot, reaches its height in these illustrations" (Mortimer).
On the title is a beautiful cut representing Homer as the Fountain of Poetry. There are 10 other cuts in similar style, one to each book and with ornamental borders containing arms of France above and a small coat below, probably Salel's. Each of these cuts, with the accompagnying handsome initial, occupies most of an entire page.
RARE, like all early illustrated vernacular editions of the classics.
Havard/Mortimer French, 293; Fairfax Murray French, 250 ("one of the handsomest books printed at Paris"); Brunet III, 290.