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Paris manual for priests, by the Bishop of Condom with Clichtove’s work on the priesthood, inaugurating Parisian Renaissance typography: two Paris first editions (1519) bound for a relative of Clichtove’s editor

CLICHTOVE, Josse (Judocus CLICHTOVEUS).
De vita et moribus sacerdotum, opusculum: singularem eoru[m] dignitatem oste[n]dens, & quibus ornati esse debea[n]t virtutibus: explanans.
Paris, Henri Estienne I, 1519 (colophon: 4 August). With woodcut title-page with the letterpress title and imprint in the central opening; further with about 21 woodcut initials (4 series, mostly criblé) plus about 4 repeats.
With: (2) MARRE, Jean. Enchiridio[n] sacerdotale concinnatu[m] ad salutarem eruditionem Christifideliu[m] ab lo[n]ge revere[n]do in Christo patre d[omi]no Ioanne Mare Co[n]domien[sis]. episcopo. In quo haec sunt capita. ...
[Paris], (colophon: Jodocus Badius Ascensius, 25 November 1519). With numerous woodcut decorated initials (4 series, the largest 45-47 mm. criblé initials). 2 works in 1 volume. 4to (20 x 14 cm). 16th-century blind- and gold-tooled calf, each board in a panel design, with the owner's name "D. Ioa[n]mes[!] Lassere" on the front and motto "memento mortis" on the back, the motto and fleurs-de-lis on the back in gold. 75, [1 blank]; “LXI” [= LXXI], [1 blank] ll.
€ 7,500
Two Paris first editions from 1519 on the priesthood and the education of priests, both complete with their final blank leaves (often lacking), finely produced by two of the most important printer-publishers of the 16th century, Henri Estienne I and Josse Bade. They are here preserved in a 16th-century binding made for what is likely to be a descendent of the first author's editor.
Ad 1: First edition of an influential work on the office and customs of the priesthood by Josse Clichtove (1472- 1543). A champion of reform in philosophical and theological studies during the earlier part of his life, Clichtove later devoted himself almost exclusively to combating the doctrines of Luther. In the present work he developed a new and comprehensive concept of the office of the priesthood that anticipated the counter-Reformation spirit of the Council of Trent. It also defended clerical celibacy and the fast, in opposition to Erasmus, whom he never mentions by name.
The book's fine typography owes much to the young Simon de Colines, probably foreman of Estienne's printing office at this date. Vervliet notes the present Clichtove edition as the first use of Colines's first roman type (used for its main text), making this roman type the progenitor of the most famous French Renaissance romans by Claude Garamont and others in the 1530s.
Ad 2: First edition of a manual for priests, compiled and edited by Jean Marre (1436-1521), bishop of Condom.
The Marre apparently came from the library of the Chartreuse de Vauvert Carthusian monastery in Paris. The two works were bound together for a French clergyman, with "D. Joa[n]mes[!] Lassere" on the front board and his inscription "Lassere vallis vividis". He is no doubt related to (perhaps descended from) the Louis Lasséré (d. Paris 1546) who edited works by Clichtove beginning in 1534. He probably made the occasional marginal manuscript note, mark or underlining appearing in both volumes.
With some stains in the first quire of the Marre and repairs to the fold of its outer bifolium, but otherwise in very good condition, with only a small marginal stain in 1 leaf and occasional minor foxing. The spine is damaged, with the loss of about half of the backstrip and a chipped corner on the back board, and the sewing a bit loose, but the binding is otherwise good. Ad 1: Contemp. of Erasmus I, pp. 317-320; French vernacular books 62864; Moreau II, 2019; USTC 145034; ad 2: French vernacular books 79087; Moreau II, 2140; USTC145051.
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