DU FOUILLOUX (J.). La Vénerie. Paris, Galiot du Pré, 1573, i - Lot 4

DU FOUILLOUX (J.). La Vénerie. Paris, Galiot du Pré, 1573, in-4°, soft vellum, smooth spine with handwritten title in full, speckled red edges (18th-century binding). Collation: 4 ff. n. ch. sign. A4, 136 ff. sign. A-Z4 and Aa-Ll4 ch. 1 to 136, and 4 ff. n. ch. sign. Mm4. First Paris edition, from the presses of Galiot du Pré (1491-1561). This is the fifth edition, the first four having been printed in Poitiers by the Marnefz family. For the first time, an extract from Gaston Phebus's book on the hunting of fallow deer, bear, wolf, billy goat, roe deer, connil... is included. Thiébaud praises its beauty, and insists on its rarity. Beautifully printed in round letters. A large woodcut featuring du Fouilloux (1519-1580) offering his book, and 56 figures in the same technique. These are copies of the engravings in the first edition published by Marnefz in 1561, with a few differences. The publisher has added a portrait of Charles IX that does not appear in previous editions. The second title is from the state, with a large woodcut on the reverse showing the author offering his book. A pleasant, well-preserved copy of princely provenance. It belonged to H.E.D. Paolo Borghese, whose library was dispersed in Rome in 1892. Described in the catalog of the first part under n° 845, it was then without the second title leaf which appears well today. It has been mounted on a tab. Most of the copies cited by Thiébaud are in 19th-century bindings. Some pages uniformly yellowed. A watermark can be seen on the last blank page (AG numeral under a shield containing five circles or billets, all crowned). Dimensions: 222 x 158 mm. Provenance: Paolo Borghese, Prince of Sulmona (Cat. I, 1892, no. 845, "...but of perfect freshness and preservation (witnesses)."). Thiébaud, 299-300 ("It is extremely rare."); Schwerdt, T. IV, p. 27 (22.1 x 14.7 cm for an ex. bound in calf); Souhart, col. 150-151 ("This edition is very beautiful; it is well printed and can rival the previous ones made by the de Marnefz: it is exceedingly rare"); Frank (R.L.) - Maillard (A.), pp. 202-203 (for an ex. bound by Marc Olivier without indication of dimensions); [...], Jacques du Fouilloux, un homme de la Renaissance, musée d'art et d'histoire de Parthenay, 2019.