Beschreibung:

Boucher, Nicolas. Caroli Lotharingi Card. et Francisci ducis Guysii, Literae et Arma, in funebri Oratione habita Nancij à N. Bocherio Theologo, & ab eodem posteà latinè pleniùs explicata. His accesserunt utriusque Icones, & eiusdem Card. Tumulus, atque Concio, ab eodem Bocherio latinè reddita. Paris: Fédéric Morel, 1577
A panegyric for François, 2nd duc de Guise (1519–1563) and his younger brother, Charles, Cardinal de Lorraine (1524–1574). The author (1528–1593) was deeply indebted to the Cardinal de Lorraine for academic appointments both at the university at Reims and in the Lorraine household, where he supervised the studies of Charles II de Lorraine-Vaudémont and Charles III de Lorraine (Boucher dedicates his book to these princes). The second part is Boucher’s translation into Latin of a sermon delivered by the Cardinal in 1573. In 1581, Boucher resigned a canonicate in the Chapter of Reims which the Cardinal had given him in 1565, to take one in Verdun, where his pupil Charles II was Bishop; Boucher was ordained Bishop of Verdun in 1588.
The book is illustrated by three plates: portraits of “Franciscus Dux a Guisia” and “Carolus Cardinalis a Lotharingia” (“aetat. 50”), struck on a bifolium (inserted before f. 1); and a view of their tomb (following f. 97). A contract (5 January 1577) between Boucher and the Parisian printmaker Jean Rabel for printing these plates was recently discovered by Marianne Grivel (“Au sieur Rabel, paragon de la pourtraicture …,” in Les Arts visuels de la Renaissance en France [XVe-XVIe siècles] [Rome, 2009], pp. 227–292).
The arms on this binding may be a tribute to the deceased Cardinal of Lorraine, or refer to his younger brother, Louis (1527–1578), elevated to Cardinal in 1568, and later Bishop of Metz (their arms are indistinguishable). As Cardinal Louis is nowhere mentioned in the book, the former hypothesis seems more probable.
Descriptions of copies on large paper and in vellum bindings with Lorraine arms appear in old sale catalogues—including copies belonging to Adolphe Audenet (1800–1872) and Guglielmo Bruto Icilio Timoleone Libri, Count Libri-Carrucci (1803–1869), as well as a copy offered for sale by Librairie Théophile Belin (in 1911 and again in 1914)—but they are likely to be independent of the Brooker copy. The earlier descriptions neither mention the Cesi provenance nor Albani. Techener, who also handled the Libri copy, gave that volume a box or slipcase, which is not present here. Audenet usually marked his ownership, even if he could not tool his initials on the binding; and there are no visible bookseller’s marks of Techener or Belin.
Another copy, offered by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1903 had remnants of fabric ties for closing the fore-edge. The book is also recorded in a red morocco binding decorated à la fanfare and with arms said to be those of Charles, Cardinal de Lorraine: Saint Dié, Médiathèque Victor Hugo, RES. B XVI 9 (1-2).
2 parts in one volume, 4to (245 x 185 mm). Roman type, with italic, 28 lines plus headline. collation: A-Z4 Aa-Ee4; AA-CC4 DD6: 130 leaves (DD6 blank). Title and section-title within woodcut borders, the latter repeated on the five pages (Cc2r–Cc4r) reproducing the dedicatory inscriptions on the brothers’ tomb; 3 engravings by Jean Rabel neatly inlaid to size of the large paper, floriated woodcut initials and headpieces. Ruled in red. (Some scattered browning and marginal foxing.)
binding: Contemporary Parisian flexible vellum (250 x 192 mm), ca. 1577, double gilt fillets around sides, with the gilt coat of arms of a Cardinal de Lorraine stamped on sides, gilt corner-pieces of interlaced strapwork, flat spine richly gilt in false compartments, edges gilt. (Some infinitesimal spotting and soiling.)
provenance: perhaps Louis I de Lorraine, cardinal de Guise (armorial supralibros) — Federico Angelo Cesi (1585–1630; oval ink-stamp with lettering “Ex bibliotheca Lincaea Federici Caesi Lynceorum principis marchionis montis caelii II” on verso of title-page; inventory of Cesi’s library, transcribed by Maria Teresa Biagetti, La biblioteca di Federico Cesi [Rome, 2008], p. 165, no. 692: “Caroli Lotharingi Card. et Franc. Ducis Guisij l[it]er[ae] et arm Lutetiae 1577”) — Cardinal Alessandro Albani (1692–1779; white-on-black ink-stamp of family arms surmounted by a cardinal’s hat, initials B.A., presumed Albani library shelfmarks “AAA 15xxxiii” and “D.VI.6”) — Rossignol, Paris (1982) — Arthur (1922–2012) and Charlotte Vershbow (1924–2000) (joint exlibris; Christie’s, New York, 20 June 2013, lot 416). acquisition: Purchased at the Vershbow sale through Robin Halwas. 
references: FB 58824; USTC 172285; Adams B-2576; Dumoulin, Vie et oeuvres de Fédéric Morel, imprimeur à Paris depuis 1557 jusqu’à 1583 (Paris, 1901), pp.222–223, nos. 283–284.