FIVE ARMORIALS IN SMALL-FORMAT BOOK

[Concordat of Bologna, 18 August 1516]: Concordata inter sanctissimum dominum nostrum Papam Leonem decimum & Christianissimum dominum nostrum Regem Franciscum huius nominis primum. Pragmatica sanctio. 1534. Facultates legati. [includes]: [Charles VII]; Guymer, Cosme (ed.): Textus pragmaticae sanctionis nuper correctus & emendatus, una cum divisionibus & summariis magistri Cosmae Guymier super qua libet parte textus diligenter appositis [includes]: [Leo X]: La Reception et modification des facultez de monseigneur le Legat. [Colophon]: Imprime, a Paris Par Denis Ianot pour Pierre Sergent. Et Iehan Longis Libraires [1534].  

This attractively bound copy of a sixteenth-century edition of the Concordat of Bologna is notable for the sheer amount of provenance evidence — especially armorials — housed within such a small book (16mo).  

Five owners' coats of arms can be identified in this copy. The supralibros to the binding is associated with the Huchet de la Bédoyères, the most famous member of this family being Charles de la Bédoyère (1786-1815), a French general who was executed shortly after the Battle of Waterloo. Most of the remaining coats of arms are also French, except for that of Joaquín Gómez de la Cortina (1805-1868), a notable Spanish bibliophile and one of the founders of the Central University of Madrid. 

The Concordat of Bologna, signed by King Francis I and Pope Leo X in 1516, authorised  the French crown to have great power over the church and was thus an important event in the history of Gallicanism. This edition of the Concordat (with supplementary material) was printed by Denis Janot (fl. 1529-1544) and was based on an earlier edition of 1532 (cf. BP16). Janot is seen as 'one of the most significant Parisian printers in the second quarter of the sixteenth century' (Rawles 2018, p. 1).

This edition has a 'kludged' decorative initial, to borrow James Misson's terminology to describe improvised printing techniques (2023). In the third section of the text, an upside-down L is used in place of a V.

Details

One volume, 16mo., 11.2 x 7.4 cms in binding, fols. 136. Collation: A-R⁸. Three woodcut initials (all 4 lines in height). Printed guide letters. 

Bound in eighteenth-century speckled calf over boards with gold-tooled arms of Huchet de la Bédoyère to both covers (cf. provenance). Gold-tooled red morocco label to second spine compartment (CONCORDATA), gold-tooled decoration to other spine compartments, gold-tooled dentelles. Red speckled edges, marbled pastedowns and endpapers.

Condition (textblock): inscription to fol. 1r slightly shaved, light to medium browning and staining to paper. Condition (binding): well preserved overall, with some light wear to leather at corners, front joint starting to crack, staining to endpapers from leather turn ins. 

Provenance:

1. Two inscriptions to title page: 'Ex Libris domm franca et amicorum' (French Dominicans and friends?) and 'Caconu[s] e[t] ff' (?).
2. Armorial binding associated with Huchet de la Bédoyère (Brittany). Cf. Olivier, Manuel vol. 11 (1927), pl. 1148, though slightly different than the three stamps shown there. 
   
3. Armorial bookplate (paper) with the arms of Berthelot du Gage, de la Villezion, and de Chesnay to rear pastedown. Cf. Jougla de Morénas, Grand Armorial de France (1934-1952), no. 4470 and CollecOnline no. 01-613.
4. Armorial bookplate (red leather) of Joaquín Gómez de la Cortina, marquis of Morante (1808-1868) to front pastedown. Cf. figures 7 and 8 in Inés Padrosa Gorgot, 'La biblioteca de D. Joaquín Gómez de la Cortina (1808-1868), marqués de Morante. Su repertorio en la Biblioteca del Palacio de Peralada', Rev. gen. inf. doc. 33:2 (2023): 461-496 (available here) and Catalogus Librorum Doctoris D. Joach. Gomez De La Cortina, vol. 1 (Matriti, Apud Eusebium Aguado, Aulae Regiae Typographum, 1854), no. 1687.
5. Armorial bookplate (black leather) to front pastedown, apparently the arms of De Fussey (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté). Cf. Jougla de Morénas, no. 16454.  
6. Armorial bookplate (paper) of French architect Jules Édouard Potier de la Morandière (1813-1905) to recto of front free endpaper.
   
7. Modern pencil notes to endpapers. 

Bibliography:

BP16_107595. FB 63113. Moreau IV 1051. USTC 203280. Stephen Rawles, Denis Janot (fl. 1529-1544), Parisian Printer and Bookseller: A Bibliography (Leiden: Brill, 2018), no. 22 (for 1534).

OCLC shows two institutional copies outside France (Yale; Berkeley, University of California). In 2018, Rawles recorded a privately owned copy in the UK (not the present copy).  

James Misson, 'Kludging Type: Some Workarounds in Early English Print', in Geri Della Rocca de Candal, Anthony Grafton, and Paolo Sachet (eds.), A Companion to Mistakes and In-House Corrections in Renaissance Europe (1450-1650) (Oxford: OUP, 2023), pp. 70-79.