Small folio (26.5 x 16.6 cm). xii, 88 pp., 11 leaves of lithographed plates printed on vellum, some with outline color. Bound in elaborately gilt blue morocco with fleurs de lys, all edges gilt (signed Hardy). Ex-libris of Cortlandt F. Bishop. First plate toned, but otherwise excellent.

Scarce first printing of this elaborately produced facsimile of a 14th-century manuscript containing Philip the Fair's legislation concerning wagers of battle, the chivalric custom of settling disputes by force of arms rather than by the rule of law. This legislation, along with the ordinances of Louis IX against dueling (which the volume also reproduces), are considered crucial in eliminating or at least restricting the use of these feudal practices, and of subjecting the aristocracy to the same legal system governing non-nobles. The work forms the seventh part of the Collection des anciens monuments de la langue française, a series which attempted to reproduce the patrimony of medieval France by means of accurate, luxurious facsimiles: the work gives a printed transcript of the text along with reproductions of the manuscript's 11 miniatures in black and white and, in the present copy, is printed on vellum. According to the preface, the original illuminations were traced; the tracing was then applied to the lithographer's stone. This is intended to offer a level of veracity unmediated by any later artist, something like a xerox.

According to the editor, the text was previously published in a different redaction by Jean Savaron in his Traité contre les duels. Avec l’édict de Philippes le Bel, de l’an MCCCVI (Paris 1610), and the preamble and extracts in a Recueil d'Ordonnances et Status royaulx (Paris, Galliot du Pré, 1515). He remarks that the textual differences between the present manuscript and these printed sources are substantial, to say nothing of the information contained in the miniatures, which depict the stages of a wager.

Joséphine Clémence Formentin (active 1824-56) was the foremost women lithographer of her day. Born in Belleville in 1802, Formentin moved to Paris to live with Denis Louis Goujon, a former colleague of her father, and studied drawing under Abel de Pujol. She later partnered with Goujon to establish a lithographic business, securing the patent in her name. Her successful establishment was equiped with some fifteen presses, employed around thirty workers, produced over 100,000 francs annually. The firm specialized in illustrated music covers, portraits, and various other printing works, including luxury editions and commercial city work. Artists whose work Formentin printed included Maurin, Nanteuil, Philipon, and Grenier. Formentin’s work was recognized with medals in 1827 and 1844. By 1845, her workshop had merged with the firm of Lemercier.

According to Brunet, II. 408, there were nine copies on Holland paper with the illustrations printed on vellum.

* Brunet II, p. 408 (dated 1829) (cf. Crapelet). For Joséphine Clémence Formentin, see École nationale des chartes, Dictionnaire des imprimeurs-lithographes du XIXe siècle (http://elec.enc.sorbonne.fr/imprimeurs/node/22319).

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