L’istoire et faits du tres-preux noble & vaillant Huon de Bordeaux, Pair de France, & Duc de Guyenne [...corr. ed.].

8vo: 421 (= 391)-[1 bl.] ff. (somewhat short at top, toned, occ. spotting and marginal dampstaining, fore-edge of 1st ff. sl. frayed).

Cont. vellum, flat spine (soiled). Good copy.

Rare Rouen edition of the popular story of Huon de Bordeaux. Huon is a knight who, after unwittingly killing Charlot, the son of Emperor Charlemagne, is given a reprieve from death on condition that he fulfills a number of seemingly impossible tasks: he must travel to the court of the Amir in Babylon and return with a handful of the Amir’s hair and teeth, kill the Amir’s mightiest knight, and three times kiss the Amir’s daughter, Esclarmonde. All these Huon eventually achieves with the assistance of the fairy king Oberon. Ill. with 24 woodcuts in text (incl. repeats). Large woodcut on title, part title and at the end. Ref. Goldsmith (BL) H-688. - Not in BnF, Le livre populaire. Prov. Some scribbling on flyleaves. - E.M. Pelay, Rothomag., i.e. the Rouen physician Édouard Melite Pelay (1842-1921), founder of the Société des Bibliophiles Rouennais (collector’s ticket). - [Georges Petit].