Helen of Constantinople.

Cest le ro[m]mant de la belle Helayne de constantinoble mere de sainct Martin de tours en tourayne. Et de sainct brice son frere.

Lyon, O. Arnoullet 1524.

4to (182 x 129 mm.). [ii], [75], [2]p. SIXTEEN NARRATIVE TEXT WOODCUTS (including seven repeats) and LARGE TITLE WOODCUT OF LA FRANCE ENTHRONED flanked by children representing Le Populaire and Noblesse playing the lute and viol and with Malheur subdued at her feet.

Early 19th-century English gilt-ruled straight-grained citron morocco (hinges and corners worn), gilt spine title, a single set of outer blue endleaves and two sets of brown flyleaves (the front set detached and laid in, the other coming detached), all edges gilt.

            SECOND EDITION OF THIS UNUSUAL ROMANCE OF CHIVALRY. In thirty chapters, the Romance of Fair Helen of Constantinople charts the adventures of a Byzantine princess who endured an incestuous father, an evil mother-in-law, shipwreck, bodily mutilation and separation from her husband and twin sons. After numerous episodes involving concealed identities, forged letters, the Crusades, murders and love affairs, Helen is reunited with her family. Her son, the legendary St. Martin of Tours, miraculously restores her dismembered arm — which he and his brother have preserved all this time.
            The plot is an early and iconic example of the Armless Maiden fairytale motif and partly descends from the Anglo-Saxon Lives of the Two Offas. Our text is an anonymous prose adaptation of a 14th-century chanson and the only version to reach print.
            THIS IS THE SECOND COPY RECORDED OF THIS EDITION. It varies slightly from the earlier undated Paris edition, but both preserve portions of the text absent from surviving manuscripts. In good condition (some fingersoiling); old ink doodles on the title woodcut, from the libraries of Sir Henry St. John Mildmay (1787-1848; bookplate), Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919; Catalogue…of Early French Books (1910) 217) and Jean Bourdel (1890-1971).
¶Jones-Wagner, “Belle Hélène de Constantinople” in Women in the Middle Ages edd. Wilson & Margolis I: 84-7; Ferrari, “Le rôle des imprimés dans l’édition d’une mise en prose manuscrite. La Belle Hélène de Constantinople” in Les Lettres médiévales à l’aube de l’ère typographique edd. Adam et al. 295-306; Bechtel, Catalogue des gothiques français H-15; Baudrier et al., Bibliographie lyonnaise X: 53; see Woledge’s Bibliographie des romans et nouvelles en prose française antérieurs à 1500 21.

Item #12302

Price: $32,000.00