De Confessione Amantis [Edited by Thomas Berthelet]

VERY RARE, only the third edition, after Caxton's first of 1483 and Berthelet's second of 1532. THIS COPY WITH FINE PROVENANCE: The Abel Berland Copy. Gothic type. Title within woodcut border (McKerrow & Ferguson 26), several woodcut initials throughout. 4to, in sixes (267 x 188 mm), in very fine 19th century English full red morocco gilt, the boards gilt-paneled in impressive Restoration style, the spine with exquisitely gilt tooled compartments between gilt ruled and stippled bands, lettered in one compartment and at the foot in gilt, the page edges beautifully gauffered in gilt, the board edges and turn-ins gilt tooled, endpapers marbled. A very fine and impressive binding. [6 ff], CXCL ff. A very fine and beautiful copy with many generations of fine provenance. The binding very fine and handsome, strong and in excellent state, the text quite clean and fresh and well preserved, title with lower inner margin expertly repaired, a few wormholes occasionally touching letters, N3 shaved close at head, small rust-hole on Z6 catching a few letters only, annotations in several early hands, occasional penciled marginalia, final blank renewed.

Edizione: very rare early printing of this important english work. johnson wrote in his dictionary: "he that reads the works of gower will find smooth numbers and easy rhymes, of which chaucer is supposed to have been the inventor, and the french words, whether good or bad, of which chaucer is charged as the inventor." <br> the confessio amantis is a poem which uses the confessions made by an aging lover to the chaplain of venus as a frame story for a collection of shorter narrative poems. according to its prologue, it was composed at the request of richard ii. it stands with the works of chaucer and langland as the great works of 14th century english literature. for sources gower relied largely on ovid, but others include the bible and various other classical writers. these were sources shared by gower's with his close friend, geoffrey chaucer. confessio has two stories also told in the canterbury tales, the tale of florent, also told by the wife of bath, and the tale of constance, which in chaucer is the man of lawes tale. another one of gower's narratives, 'apollonius of tyre' served as a source for william shakespeare. shakespeare drew from it the plot for his 'pericles', and introduces gower himself as chorus, who opens each act with a prologue. <br> this edition is essentially a reprint of the second edition of 1532, with some corrections and with the text of the preliminary leaves a bit compressed. this copy with exceptional provenance, iltyd nicholl (stamp on flyleaf and bookplate) -- digby nicholl (stamp on flyleaf) -- william marchbank (armorial bookplate) -- e.m. cox (bookplate and initials pencilled on rear flyleaf, 1904) and abel berland, with his famous bookplate.