{"product_id":"the-last-early-edition-of-the-roman-de-la-rose","title":"The Last Early Edition of the Roman de la Rose","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Final Sixteenth-Century Printing of Medieval Europe’s Most Influential Love Allegory\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung]. \u003cem\u003eLe rommant de la Rose nouuellement reueu et corrige oultre les precedentes impressions.\u003c\/em\u003e Paris, Arnoul and Charles les Angeliers, 1537.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe final early edition of the \u003cem\u003eRoman de la Rose\u003c\/em\u003e, one of the foundational literary monuments of medieval Europe and the most influential allegory of love of the Middle Ages. Printed in Paris in 1537 and illustrated with 51 woodcuts, this rare octavo edition marks the end of nearly two centuries of continuous transmission before the text disappeared from print for generations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eEdition \u0026amp; Bibliographic Information\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eΠ8 a–z8, \u0026amp;8 τ8 A–Y8 YY8 ZZ8 aa–bb8 cc4 = 8 leaves, 403 numbered leaves, 1 leaf. Title printed in red and black.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIllustrated with 51 woodcuts. Small octavo (156 × 93 mm).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis edition constitutes the fourth printing of the Clément Marot revised text and simultaneously the final sixteenth-century octavo edition of the \u003cem\u003eRoman de la Rose\u003c\/em\u003e. It follows the celebrated 1531 edition extremely closely “page for page, line for line, error for error,” though in slightly larger format and printed in gothic rather than roman type.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnlike the refined elegance of earlier Parisian editions, this printing reflects a transitional moment in French literary and book culture. Its somewhat rougher woodcuts and more economical production methods reveal a medieval tradition approaching the end of its dominance just as Renaissance literary ideals began reshaping European conceptions of love, allegory, and narrative form.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePhysical Description \u0026amp; Binding\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEighteenth-century red morocco binding over five raised bands richly gilt with floral and ornamental tools. Spine with brown morocco label and gilt compartments framed by double gilt fillets. Covers within triple gilt fillet borders with corner fleurons; gilt board edges and decorative gilt dentelle borders to the turn-ins; brocade-paper endleaves with point-and-star pattern and entirely gilt edges throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBinding rubbed; earlier inscription removed from title. Occasional contemporary marginal annotations throughout. Leaves 5–76 with small marginal wormtrack and occasional wormholes to the lower blank margins; faint dampstaining to approximately leaf 56; otherwise remarkably clean internally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe elegant eighteenth-century morocco binding sharply contrasts with the comparatively modest sixteenth-century printing, transforming the volume into a consciously retrospective object of French literary memory.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe End of the Medieval Love Tradition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eRoman de la Rose\u003c\/em\u003e occupied an almost unparalleled position within medieval European literary culture. Begun by Guillaume de Lorris around 1230 and expanded decades later by Jean de Meung into a vast encyclopedic satire on love, society, philosophy, and human behaviour, the text shaped courtly literature for centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYet by the 1530s its world was beginning to vanish. Alfred Karnein later described medieval courtly love literature as a cultural system that had exhausted its “civilizationally innovative impulses” and increasingly collided with broader intellectual and social developments.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe present edition therefore occupies a fascinating historical threshold. Its publishers still competed fiercely to issue the work — Bourdillon noted that “no less than ten different publishers adopted the disreputable changeling” — even while new Renaissance literary ideals rapidly displaced medieval allegorical traditions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnly nine years later, in 1546, the first French edition of the \u003cem\u003eHypnerotomachia Poliphili\u003c\/em\u003e introduced an entirely different conception of love, beauty, image, and textual form. The transition was dramatic: from medieval dream allegory toward the sophisticated visual and philosophical culture of the Renaissance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Book-Historical Monument\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNineteenth-century scholars often dismissed the edition harshly. F. W. Bourdillon regarded it as a “cheap imitation” and “almost a parody” of the elegant 1531 edition, criticizing its “careless printing” and coarser recut woodblocks.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYet from a modern perspective, these very qualities make the volume historically compelling. Like Emperor Maximilian I’s \u003cem\u003eAmbraser Heldenbuch\u003c\/em\u003e — another monumental attempt to preserve fading medieval literary traditions at the dawn of modernity — this final \u003cem\u003eRoman de la Rose\u003c\/em\u003e edition becomes a witness to the end of an entire cultural world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIts relative modesty only sharpens that historical poignancy. The book preserves, almost accidentally, the last material echo of medieval France’s most influential vernacular literary text before the Renaissance definitively transformed European literary taste.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eLiterature\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBechtel G-383 (“1538”); not in BM STC French, Brunet, or Graesse; Bourdillon S; cf. Brun 241; cf. Ebert 19316f.; Rahir 619; Tchemerzine VII, 247.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor a fuller scholarly description and illustrations, see \u003cem\u003eWunderkammer\u003c\/em\u003e Catalogue 90, number 77b:\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/heribert-tenschert\/docs\/katalog_90_vol_2_web?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"\u003eWunderkammer Catalogue 90, Volume II\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46837767176380,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1285\/3436\/files\/p289_img01-Photoroom.png?v=1779156061","url":"https:\/\/atelierzweig.com\/products\/the-last-early-edition-of-the-roman-de-la-rose","provider":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}