[Occultisme] [Planche du couteau prodigieux] François de Belleforest - Histoires prodigieuses - 1597

[BELLEFOREST, François de / SORBIN, Arnauld]
Prodigious Histories, extracted from many famous authors, Greeks & Romans...
Paris: In the widow Guillaume Cavellat's shop (at Mont Saint-Hilaire, at the Pelican), 1597–1598.

Small 12mo, about 11.5 x 7.5 cm. Full brown leather binding of the period (or of the 17th century, spine elaborately ribbed with gilt compartments, title piece in garnet morocco ('Prodigious Histories, Vol. II' — composite volume gathering volumes III, IV, V and VI bound together).

Volume III: 372 pp. (2) ff.
Volume IV: 80 pp. (2) ff.
Volume V: 159 pp. (1) ff.
Volume VI: 91 pp. (2) ff.

Composite volume bringing together several parts or volumes bound after the Prodigious Histories of François de Belleforest and related treatises, richly illustrated with woodcuts in the text (monsters, fantastic animals, historical scenes, and the famous folding woodcut plate depicting 'The Knife' with its contemporaneous manuscript note: 'This figure of the knife ought to be placed in the Sixth Volume, at fol. 46').

Numerous woodcut engravings interlined or mid-page depicting prodigies of nature, anthropomorphic monsters, prodigious dogs (such as the Siena dog), fantastical creatures and allegorical figures, framed by the famous pelican printer’s mark of Guillaume Cavellat’s workshop on the various false titles/titles dated 1597 and 1598.

François de Belleforest (1530–1583), a major continuer of the Prodigious Histories begun by Pierre Boaistuau, built one of the most fascinating monuments of Renaissance monstrous imagination. These works did not seek only to terrify readers by displaying anatomical monsters or celestial catastrophes: at the time they were seen as signs of divine anger or astrological and moral warnings.

The presence in this copy of the plate of the prodigious knife (often torn out or missing in copies preserved due to its fragility and folding format) constitutes a rare bibliophilic treasure!