jamesgray2

864J. Horapollo (ca 5th century).; Jean Martin (trans., asscr.ƒl. approximately 1553.)

Orvs Apollo de Ægypte De la signification des notes hieroglyphiques des Aegyptiens, c’est à dire des figures par les quelles ilz escripvoient leurs mystères secretz, et les choses sainctes et divines. Nouuellement traduict de grec en francoys et imprime auec les figures a chascun chapitre.

On les vend a Paris a la rue sainct Jacques a lenseigne des deux coches par Jacques Kerver. 1543. . Price $4,500

Octavo. Signatures: a-n⁸./Gathering k signed “lz.”   First Edition. Rebound in 17th or 18th century sponged calf, recently rebacked, edges-stained red.  Trimmed a bit close affecting the title, running title and occasionally just touching the plate edges, title repaired in the gutter with manuscript replacement of lost text; light scattered stains, foxing, generally quite clean internally with 197 woodcuts on 104 leaves seven are repeats and the last ten and their text were added by the translator, probably Jean Martin, a⁶v and a⁸v with cancelled cuts pasted over, as usual. 

The first illustrated edition and the first French translation of one of the most significant texts in the history of emblem literature.  The illustrations are some of the finest small woodcuts of the French Renaissance and have been attributed to Jean Cousin and Jean Goujon. The representation of various landscapes, seascapes, woods, animals and symbolic subjects is skilfully handled as a series of 197 woodcut illustrations (ca. 50 x 50 mm), each accompanied by a definition and a commentary.  It is Jacques Kerver’s first illustrated book, after which he developed a taste for luxurious publications.

 Ten hieroglyphs are introduced from various sources, including the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (a French translation of that work would be published by Kerver in 1546). The set of woodblocks was reused for Jean Mercier’s Greek-Latin edition of the Hieroglyphica, published by Kerver in 1551, and 132 of the blocks were employed for a different French version, which Kerver published in 1553.

The translator is not named in the book. He is conventionally identified as the humanist Jean Martin (d. 1553), whose last literary effort, a French translation of Alberti’s De re ædificatoria, completed posthumously by Denis Sauvage, and published by Kerver after 2 August 1553, contains a preface listing “d’Orus Apollo” among Martin’s translations (f. a2r). Several recent critics have expressed doubts, wondering whether Martin might be responsible instead for the quite different version published by Kerver in 1553. Contrary to the declaration on Kerver’s 1543 title-page, the translation seems to be based, not on the Greek original, but for the most part on the Latin translation of Bernardino Trebazio (printed at Paris, ca. 1519, 1521, 1530; Lyon, 1542). The Greek text was first printed by Aldo Manuzio in 1505.  

The identities of the illustrators are also in doubt. Two hands are generally recognized, with the majority of the woodcuts attributed to Jean Cousin le Père, and the rest to Jean Goujon. Both artists collaborated with Kerver on subsequent publications. The attribution to Cousin originated with J.-M. Papillon in 1766, was confirmed by Ambroise Firmin Didot in 1872, and by Ruth Mortimer in 1964. Neither attribution, however, is secure, and persuasive arguments have recently been presented in favor of the young Baptiste Pellerin by Anna Baydova. Whoever the illustrator was, he evidently had at his disposal a number of prints by Dürer, as elements from the Apocalypse (1498), Saint Eustache (1501), Knight, Death and the Devil (1513), are incorporated.

Jamesgray2@me.com