Les Illustrations de Gaule et singularitez de De Troye

(Le premier livre (...)). Le second livre des illustrations de Gaule (...). Le tiers livre des illustrations de Gaule (...). Le traicte de la difference des scismes & des Concilles de leglise (...). Le tout copose par Jehan le Maire de Belges indiciaire & historiographe de la royne (...). Paris, François Regnault, 1528, 4 (of 5) volumes in one binding, (6),LXV,(1 blank); XLVI; (6),XLI; (29),(1 blank) leaf, with 1 general title printed in red and black inside woodcut border and 3 subtitles with various woodcut borders and printer's marks, 1 full-page woodcut, various half-page woodcuts and many smaller woodcuts, modern blindstamped leather in old style by "J. de Backer Rest.", 8vo (4to size).

General title page with owner's stamp (possibly of restorator De Backer) and restored margin. This title mentions a 5th volume "Lepistre du roy a Hector de Troye (...)" (14 leaves), here lacking. Volume 1: leaves XIIII-XX damaged in upper right-hand corner, with loss to text (restored), the last (blank) leaf with old owner's name "Gallet" in pen; the other volumes here and there with old annotations and other small defects. Rare woodcut book. Jean Lemaire, (ca. 1473- ca. 1525) was a Walloon poet, pamphleteer and chronicler, considered a forerunner to the Renaissance humanists in France and Flanders. Lemaire wrote in French. He made a distinction between French and the Roman language in the Netherlands, which he called Walloon, for example in his three-part Les Illustrations de Gaule et singularitéz de Troye (first editions 1511, 1512, 1513). He was attached to the court of Regent Margaret of Austria and later to that of king Louis XII of France (Wikipedia).