[Cartonnage] Léon Gautier - ‎La Chevalerie - 1884

First edition of this great classic on the Middle Ages and chivalry, copy covered with a superb publisher's cardboard in red calico printed in black, gold and silver, smooth back in half-shagreen, decorated covers as well as the back, golden slices. Dishes decorated with a large black, gold and silver historiated plaque by A. Souze, reproducing the statue of Emmanuel Frémiet: "Crédo".

Very illustrated book, including 25 inset plates in black under captioned snakes, 152 in-text figures plus 20 banners and 20 cul-de-lamps by Omerson, Zier, Libonis, Stein, Meaulle, etc ...

Clean back, slightly faded percaline with traces of friction on both sides, corners and edges of rubbed sides. Interior in excellent condition, no foxing (rare), burnished snakes with foxing.

The author, Émile Théodore Léon Gautier (1832 -1897) was a French literature historian and archivist. His scientific work is devoted to the history of epic poetry from the Middle Ages in France, to chivalry and to palaeography. He is notably the author of an edition of the Chanson de Roland (critical text), which has become classic (1872). He wrote numerous articles on literature, its history and its polemics in various newspapers and magazines. He was elected member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres in 1887 and became head of the historical section of the National Archives in 1893.

Leon Gautier

The knighthood

Paris, Brussels and Geneva, Victore Palmé, 1884

in-4.30 x 21 cm; xv-788 pp.