[Rare first edition, with curious illustrations] Le breviere des courtisans,

enrichy d'un grand nombre de Figures. Par le Sr. De la Serre Historiographe de France. Brussels, F. Vivien, 1630, (24),304 p., with engraved frontispiece, title illustrations, 2 portraits and 7 plates (within collation) by P. de Jode (2x), E. van Schoor (1x), Ph. de Mallery (1x) and C. Galle (3x) after N. van der Horst, contemporary vellum.

Waterstained and soiled copy with wormholes in lower corner at the beginning; lacks free endpapers (bookblock slightly tender). On the inside of the back cover 2 ex libris: Laurent Mannoni and Nicole Casanova. Rare first edition of this beautifully illustrated book of hours for courtiers. Divided into seven chapters, the matins, prime, terce, sext, none, vespers and complines (with the laudes omitted), with an engraving for each of these chapters in which an image from the Passions of Christ is depicted in the top half, contrasted sharply with a scene from the daily life of a courtier in bottom half. For example: the crowning with thorns where Christ is facing a mirror, above a scene in which a courtier has his hair cut and inspects the result in a mirror, and Christ crucified above a group of people at an abundantly laid-out table.