BOCCACCIO, Giovanni (1313–1375). De casibus virorum illustrium, in French: De la Ruine des Nobles hommes et femmes. Translated by Laurent de Premierfait. Paris: Antoine Vérard, 4 November 1494.

Rare edition of Boccaccio’s seminal masterpiece. Written in the second half of the 14th century, Boccaccio’s De casibus virorum illustrium (On the Fates of Famous Men) relates the rise and fall of noted figures across history, from Adam and Eve to contemporary rulers. In doing so, Boccaccio participates in and influences a long literary history of short stories and frame narratives, as found in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (specifically The Monk's Tale), Lydgate’s Fall of Princes, and Boccaccio’s own earlier Decameron. He also synthesizes many important themes at this stage in the Middle Ages, namely the inevitable disasters that await powerful individuals and the ever-turning wheel of fortune.

The preeminent humanist writer Laurent de Premierfait produced the first translations of Boccaccio’s De casibus virorum illustrium in the first decade of the 15th century. Over the following decades, a strong manuscript tradition developed around Laurent’s translations and, by the century’s close, his De la Ruine des Nobles hommes et femmes offered a vibrant if not daunting choice for adapting into print. Jean Dupré was the first printer to attempt this feat, crafting the first illustrated Parisian printed book in doing so. The text from Dupré’s 1483 editio princeps is the basis for the present edition, modernized by Vérard with 10 large woodcuts. Printed in double columns, with manuscript initials and a batarde type, Vérard’s edition is a stunning example of how centuries of manuscript design and illustration could be replicated using new print technologies and artistry. ISTC lists 10 copies only. H 3344; CIBN B-512; GW 4435; Goff B-714; ISTC ib00714000.

Median folio (334 × 232mm). 311 leaves (of 314, lacking title-page [replaced in facsimile] and without 2 blanks), gathering n has 6 leaves (3 bifolia) as the Liège copy. Batarde type. 10 large woodcuts, initials supplied in red (repaired wormtrack affecting about 2 words in quires d-i, smaller repaired wormholes at end occasionally touching letters). Modern brown blindstamped calf.