ABBREGE DE L'HISTOIRE FRANCOISE, avec les Effigies des Roys tirées des plus rares et excellentz Cabinetz de la France. Par H.C.

A Paris, Jehan le Clerc, 1585. Folio. 34 leaves. Later red half-morocco, gilt-tooled flat spine, morocco label on the upper board with the gilt inscription "Abrégé de l'Histoire de France". First Edition of this magnificent volume, composed of sixty-four portraits of the kings of France (one per page), inserted in medallion and framed by beautiful wood-engraved borders with characters, animals, flowering branches, grotesques, fauna, masks, etc. The oval frame in which the portraits are inserted are surrounded by allegorical figures, loves, soldiers, satyrs, goddesses, with below a summary historical text. The work ends with chronological tables of the kings of the France and the privilege, after which was inserted later (after 1594) an identically printed folio bearing the portrait of Henry IV. Brun says of the ornamentation of these borders that it is of supreme elegance. Small loss in the blank part of the title page. Nice copy. Brunet, I, 14 describes the edition of 1596 which he declares rare and reports the first of 1585 only according to the description given by Papillon: "Ce Jean Leclerc, de Paris, de la famille du peintre lorrain de ce nom, a gravé sur cuivre et sur bois. (…) dans plusieurs privilèges royaux de 1585 à 1619 il est qualifié de 'Marchand et tailleur d'histoire'…". Brun, Le livre français illustré de la Renaissance (p. 64): "Ces sortes de recueils (sont) devenus maintenant très rares".