(LITERATURE: ILLUSTRATED: FINE BINDINGS; FRENCH EDITIONS: RARIORA) Giovanni BOCCACCIO (1313-1375) Le Decameron De M. Iean Bocace Florentin, traduit d’Italien en François par maitre Antoine le Maçon, Conseiller du Roy, & Tresorier de l’Extraordinaire de ses guerres. A Lyon, par Guillaume Rouille, 1558. § 16mo (116x65); 1002 [recte 992, pagination jumps from 384 to 395], [32] pp. (sig. a-z8, A-Z8, aa-qq8, *8, **8). Printer’s device on title page, small woodcut portrait of the poet on verso of title page, woodcut head-pieces and initials, 10 half-page woodcut illustrations. XVII century calf, gilt title piece in red morocco on spine. Fine copy. The first edition of Maçon translation was published in 1545 in Paris and often reprinted; it was published by Rouille for the first time in 1551. Both Brunet and Graesse point out that all the old editions (1548-1580) have the advantage to be complete, while the following reprints have been more or less mutilated in different places. Of the Maçon translation Brunet writes that this translation is “justement estimée” (are rightly esteemed) and that all these small editions are sought after (“Ces petites éditions sont recherchées”). Previous translations into French were far from satisfacory and, during the reign of Francis I, it was decided to entrust a new translation of the Cento-Novelle to a “worthy” interpreter. Antoine le Maçon, king’s finance official and secretary to Queen Marguerite de Navarre, the regent’s sister, was chosen to perform the task; the work was completed in 1545 and Maçon dedicated it to Queen Marguerite, who drew inspiration from it to write the collection of seventy-two short stories entitled Heptaméron (Galano, p. 49; Crocicchia, p. 6). “Le Maçon's translation is substantially faithful to the original, unlike the previous one, created by Laurent de Premierfait, thanks also to the author's bilingualism, and therefore Boccaccio's short stories were distributed in France until the 17th century without being subjected to great manipulation, as instead happened in the case of Bandello.” (Crocicchia, p. 6, translated). “Le Maçon’s work reveals absolute fidelity to the Italian text and great ability in translating. He succeeded, by slavishly adhering to the basic version, in making even the most complex passages comprehensible, untying, in the act of translating, the knots of a syntactic structure that was not always easy to understand 19 . The most eloquent testimony to the scrupulousness of the royal official’s work lies in the adaptation into Middle French of the ballads that close the ten days. Not only did he translate them into verse but he was able to adopt the same structure as the Italian stanzas, achieving the merit of introducing into the French language “certaines combinaisons savantes des rythmes emprunté à l’Italie”.” (Galano, p. 49, translated). The woodcuts are by the French engraver, illustrator and painter Pierre Eskrich (c. 1518 - c. 1590); born Pierre Krug he was also known as Pierre Cruche or Pierre Vase; he worked in Paris, Lyon and Geneva and often collaborated with Rouille.  BRUNET, I, 1006; GRAESSSE, I, p. 453; ELENA CROCICCHIA “Il n'est rien qu'on conte en diverses façons'. Il percorso della novella dal Decameron di Boccaccio ai Contes di La Fontaine”, thesis, 2021-2022, https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12608/36380; Sabrina Galano Fortuna e diffusione delle opere di Giovanni Boccaccio nella Francia medievale con particolare attenzione al Decameron e alla novella di Griselda, http://elea.unisa.it/bitstream/handle/10556/3454/04_galano.pdf