Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1761.
Folio, 1 title-page, xxii-558 pp., clvvviii pages, 2 folding maps.
Full light-brown marbled calf, triple gilt fillet around the covers, arms of King Louis XV gilt-stamped on the covers, spine ribbed bearing the crowned cipher of the king repeated in the five panels, as well as stars and fleurs-de-lys, inner border, marbled edges. Royal binding from the time.
400 x 253 mm.
First edition based on a manuscript by Joinville acquired by King Louis XV, coming from the library taken in Brussels by Maurice de Saxe.
It gives Joinville’s original text with a minimum of alterations. The language has retained all its robust naivety.
This edition, printed on laid paper, is illustrated with a fleuron on the title, engraved by Lemire, 3 vignettes by Eisen and Gravelot, 3 tail-pieces by Gravelot, engraved by Lemire and Sornique, 3 engraved letters and 2 folding maps by d’Anville.
Jean de Joinville (1224-1317), squire to the Count of Champagne, seneschal of Champagne, crusader in 1248 in the wake of Louis IX, took part in the capture of Damietta (1249) and the battle of Mansourah (1250); taken prisoner with the king, sick, released and repatriated to Saint-Jean-D’acre (1250), he prolonged his stay in the Holy Land with Louis IX (1251-1254), who took him into his service and made him his confidant, admirer and advisor.
His “Memoirs” were written between November 1, 1305 and April 30, 1306, at the request of Queen Jeanne de Navarre. The narrative begins shortly before the seventh crusade and ends sixteen years later, with the expedition itself occupying two-thirds of the book.
This book of history and documentary literature, which relates, with the talent of a painter, what Joinville knows from personal experience, is also a work of edification with a didactic purpose. Louis IX embodies the values of the good Christian, the strong and just king, the valiant and courteous knight; he illustrates a model to be meditated on, by giving a number of lessons, the most important of which, addressed to the princes, consists in deserving his social superiority.
The first example of testimonial literature: this work, which brings to life the man as much as the king and the saint, is the work of an eyewitness who ended up writing his autobiography; Joinville put himself into his account, where he stands out in full light.
(« Beautiful edition », Brunet, III-556-557 – Jean Dufournet, “En Français dans le texte“, n°24 – Hauser, “Les Sources de l’histoire de France“, III, 2537 – Quérard, “La France littéraire“, IV, 230 – Cohen, 518-519 – Tchemerzine, III, 779).
A beautiful copy preserved in its binding from the time bearing the arms and cipher of the King.
