[Les motz dorez de Cathon en fra[n]coys et en latin [...] [trsl. from the Latin by P. Grosnet] [and] GROSNET, Pierre - Enseignement de lautheur [...]]

8vo: [96 (of ?)] ff. (all before B1 and all after N8 missing = probably 32 ff.; toned, dampstained, blank bottom corners of 1st & last ff. torn off).

19th-c. marbled sheep, gilt spine (rubbed, lower cover scratched). Good large fragment. S.w.a.f.

Extr. rare survivor of an ed. of the "Motz dorez" still to be identified. Perhaps a copy of one of the 3 editions described by Moreau (all signed A-Q8), but difficult to ascribe because title and colophon are missing here. It contains the "Disticha Catonis" in French and in Latin, as well as the "Enseignement" by the French "rhétoriqeur" Pierre Grosnet or Grognet (15xx-ca. 1540), with proverbs, ballads, "rondeaux", blasons etc., as well as other Rhétoriqueur poems, i.a. (on I2v ff.) the "Ballade de la charité" by Jean Bouchet (1476-1557). Some pieces in various editions of the "Motz dorez" were later identified with texts by François Villon, Henri Macé and Roger de Colleyre. The whole offers a collection of riddles, ballads, distichs and proverbs, a few of them bawdy or lighthearted and including some of the first poems printed in vernacular French. Of each ed. only a few copies are recorded (or none at all).
Ref. Cp. Moreau III 1679bis, 2006 & 2007. - Cp. the 8vo ed. in Bechtel, Gothiques français, C78-112. - Cp. Pettegree (FB) 9300 ff.
Prov. Kunstbezit Borms (collector's stamp).