LA MER DES HYSTOIRES.

“Everybody agrees upon the artistic merit of ‘La Mer des Hystoires’, which is known to be the most beautiful illustrated book from the 15^th century. Even if several engravings appear several times inside the two volumes, this is nonetheless a genuine masterpiece, if we refer to the time when they were published. The miniaturist’s art went all of a sudden in the printed book domain.”  (Claudin, Histoire de l’Imprimerie française).

Very rare first edition of “La Mer des Hystoires”, “the most beautiful French illustrated incunable» (Claudin), the printing of which was completed in July 1488 (First volume) and 1489 (Second volume), « decorated with large grotesque letters on each title (S. Georges), interlacing borders, splendid decorated capital letters (in particular I, P, S), magnificent bastard fount, 2 double-page maps (The World and Palestine), 51 full-page plates (Baptism of Clovis, Battle of Tolbiac, etc), 16 half-page plates, 383 vignettes in the text, valuable for the history of costume, crafts and customs” (Guy Bechtel).

“Everybody agrees upon the artistic merit of ‘La Mer des Hystoires’, which is known to be the most beautiful French illustrated book of the 15^th century. Even if several engravings appear several times inside the two volumes, this is nonetheless a genuine masterpiece, if we refer to the time when they were published. The miniaturist’s art went all of a sudden in the printed book domain” (Claudin).

“La Mer des Hystoires” is an original adaptation in French language of a Latin text describing the universal history of France from its origins until the death of King Louis XI.

“It is completed with a geographical dictionary, a description of the Holy Land, Aesop’s Fables and a genealogy of kings of France until the death of King Louis XI and followed by a second part entitled Le Martirologe des sainctz.

The illustration includes large historiated capital letters, including a spectacular calligraphed-style L, large initial woodcut decorated with interlacing and adorned with characters, animals and grotesques, for the title pages. Among the large plates especially designed for these incunabular editions there are Clovis’ famous baptism next to the battle of Tolbiac and genealogic suites. There are also pictures presenting everyday life scenes or episodes of the Virgin’s life, lengthwise engravings (crossing of the Red Sea), small figures specific to book of hours (Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity…), large initials with fleurons for the beginning of chapters and borders with foliated scrolls, birds, and fantastic animals.” (N. Petit, Les Incunables : livres imprimés au XVe siècle).

The originality and the profusion of this decoration reveal the engraver’s desire to carry on the luxuriousness of the illuminator’s brush decoration in the printed book.

The world and Palestine maps are the first to appear in a French printed book.

It is in this precious work that are also the so famous woodcuts representing “Clovis’ baptism” and the “Battle of Tolbiac”, considered as “one of the most precious productions of woodcuts of the 15^th century”. G. Duplessis.

“Pierre Le Rouge is, just like Jean Du Pré and Guy Marchant, one of the French printers that have contributed the most to the artistic progress of the book. He is also perhaps the one that gave the highest impetus to the French art of illustration in the 15^th century. He belonged to a family of calligraphers, illuminators and miniaturists, who became printers afterwards. Le Rouge began as a typographer in Chablis, in 1478.”

Claudin (Histoire de l’Imprimerie française) dedicated 23 full pages to the description and the reproduction of the woodcuts of this first edition: “In July 1487 was published the first volume of ‘La Mer des Histoires’, illustrated book of majestic look, entirely filled with large and small woodcuts, with artistically drawn borders, ornaments with a very original conception and initials reminding both the vagaries of the calligraphers’ quill and the fantasies of the illuminator’s brush. Seven months after was published the second volume, brilliant of French art.”

Among the large plates, there is one that is quite remarkable. « We must consider, said Mr. Georges Duplessis, the Baptism of Clovis and the Battle of Tolbiac as one of the most precious productions of woodcusts of the 15^th century in France. » This engraving’s feature is almost simple, and some of the cuts only indicate the form of the objects. It has a lot of analogy with the miniatures. « We find here, said Mr. Duplessis again, flexibility, almost grace in the drawing, even a certain freedom in the engraving; if the perspective is still lacking, the engraver is compensating this flaw with the variety of ornaments that he’s using. »

In one of the small engravings, the artist tried to represent a famous at the time preacher giving a lecture in several points; his audience is composed of ladies, lords and other assistants, including one followed in the church by his dog. It was then fashionable to assist to the lectures of the Cordelier Olivier Maillard, who was telling their truths to people of all conditions.

Other engravings show us details of buildings. Those plates are interesting for the history of crafts, as they are giving us the exact representation of a construction site in the 15^th century, we can see the digger, the stone mason working with their tools. The wheelbarrow was used long before Pascal, to whom we generally attribute its invention. The series of small figures that we can see in books of Hours, is surrounded by charming borders, decorated with angels, flowers, birds, fantastic animals and grotesques.

The work was printed for the bookseller Vincent Commin, and Pierre Le Rouge finished its second volume in February 1488 (1489, n.st).

There are a lot of other interesting illustrations in those two volumes whose description can be found in Mr. Monceaux’s work.

Pierre Le Rouge seems to have established his press in the same home as Vincent Commin’s, who had the shop La Rose. This fact is likely plausible, if we pay attention to Le Rouge’s mark composed of a rose tree topped with a crowned fleur-de-lys, in allusion to his title of Printer of the King of France. Le Rouge kept this mark, even when he worked for others than Vincent Commin.

Pierre Le Rouge used, for this book, a large character of bastard fount of approximatively 14 points.

A copy printed on vellum skin and highlighted with light illuminations putting forward the cuts of the engravings, has been prepared by the printer himself, and presented to king Charles VIII. The royal copy still exists. You can admire it in the display cabinets of the galerie Mazarine at the French National Library. » Claudin, (Histoire de l’Imprimerie française).

Several leaves, slightly shorter, sometimes repaired, some  not rubricated seem to come from another copy: o p2 to 4, â1, a1 to 8, b2 to 8, c1, z1, hh8 to10, 00 C1, D1, E1, 7 and 8, F3, J6 and 8, K1, K6, L8, M1, M3, O1, O3, O7, Q7, S1, S8, T8, V1, X4, AA6 and 7, DD3 to 5, FF6, FF8, HH7, KK3, NN10, â1, ô6, ss1 à 6.

The folios p1 to 4, h3, o1, p4, y2, 3 and 8 and hh2 of the first volume and Al and 2 of the second one have been restored; wormholes including one touching the text (vol. I, quires a to g); waterstain in a few margins; some marginal handwritten notes. Two folios (b1 [vol. I] and ss7 [vol. II]) have been zincographed.

“La « Mer des Hystoires” is a universal chronic aimed to retrace the history of the world, task instigated by Charles VIII in 1483, and published by Pierre le Rouge in 1488. It takes up a highly successful compilation edited in Lubeck in 1475 (the Rudimentum noviciorum) with additions on kings of France. In the first two editions, the statement of facts ends in 1483. It was extended afterwards. The value of the work resides in its numerous illustrations, especially in the first editions, but even for the latest ones, still very attractive, they are researched as the copies of a mythic book in the eyes of bibliophiles. » (Guy Bechtel).

« Le Rouge had before him the editio princeps of the Rudimenturn nouitiorum, Lucas Brandis, Lubeck, 1475 (IC. 9810, vol. ii p. 550), but decorated his own book more effectively. The woodcuts, which comprise many repeats, are of various sizes, but the only full-page cuts are the genealogical and dynastic diagrams in the form of medallions joined by chains and often containing type-set inscriptions, and the ‘figure de la terre’ and the ‘figure de la terre saincte’ on feuillet lxx^b and lxxi^a and feuillet viii^xxxvii^b and viii^xxxviii^a of volume I respectively, all of which are modelled on their equivalents in the Lubeck book, and also a cut of the baptism of King Clovis I and his victory at Tolbiac on feuillet vi^xxxvii and ii^cxiv of vol. ii. A number of the smaller cuts derive from a Book of Hours. I with the figure of Christ blessing on 13^a of vol. i marks the beginning of the words ‘In principio creauit deus celum et terram’, to be supplied by hand in the space provided to the right before the beginning of the French printed text (see description) ; it is also used several times at other points. Almost all the pages bearing cuts are flanked with a border-piece along one margin and border-pieces are joined to form complete surrounds at the beginnings of the principal sections.    » (BMC VIII).

The last beautiful copy listed by the bibliographers goes back to the Germeau sale of 1870; bound during the 19^th century by Chambolle-Duru, the copy was sold for 1 200 F OR, books of high bibliophily were then negociated from 10 F OR.

Precious copy from the libraries of Henri Gallice and Marcel Jeanson (100 003 – D3), with ex-libris, sold for 550 000 FF + premium in the Marcel Jeanson sale of the 10^th of November 2001 – 104 800 € 17 years ago (ref. Vente Jeanson – 10th of October 2001, n°3).

The copy of Baron Achille Seillière, completed with 10 leaves coming from a shorter copy, was sold for 1 350 000 FF in 1987 – 205 000 € 31 years ago.