Anthoine Vérard (ed.): Tristan I-II. Paris: Anthoine Vérard c. 1506 and c. 1496. 2 vols.
Perg. Haun. 15 / Inc. Haun. 3986 2º

Vol. I, title page	Vol. I, fol. a1r: Full-page image	Vol. I, fol. e1r	Vol. I, fol. y2r	Vol. I, fol. y4v

Vol. II, fol. E4r	Vol. II, fol. H6r	Vol. II, fol. K5r	Vol. II, fol. L7v

From 1485 to 1512, the Parisian publisher Anthoine Vérard issued more than 300 editions, including four editions of the prose romance, Tristan. The editio princeps, produced jointly by Vérard and Jean Le Bourgeois of Rouen, is dated 1489, but the three other editions are undated and printed for Vérard by unidentified printers. They are thus difficult to distinguish without careful attention to their page layout, type, and illustration, especially if the title page or colophon is missing, as in the Copenhagen volume II. For all but the first edition, Vérard had a few copies printed on vellum and illuminated by the best artists of the day for presentation or sale to wealthy patrons or clients.

The Royal Library owns a vellum copy of Tristan whose two volumes belong to two different editions. Volume I is from Vérard’s fourth edition, published c. 1506; volume II, from the second edition, issued c. 1496. For both volumes, Vérard employed artists to paint small miniatures over the chapter headings which were then re-written by hand in the margin next to the image. The full-page woodcuts that appear in paper copies of these editions were painted in the vellum copies (e.g. vol. I, fol. a1r, where the artist has also added a gold frame around the image), or perhaps covered by new miniatures more closely related to the text (e.g. vol. I, fol. y4v). Unfortunately, the pages containing the woodcuts have all been removed from volume II, undoubtedly because of their value to unscrupulous collectors as single illuminated leaves.

The Royal Library’s Volume I is the only known vellum copy of the c. 1506 edition of Tristan. For the c. 1496 edition, the only complete, two-volume copy on vellum is preserved in Châteauroux, France. The Copenhagen copy remains the only other vellum copy of volume II of that edition, whereas vellum copies of volume I are located in Paris (BnF) and Turin (BN). (Did the Copenhagen and Turin volumes once constitute a single copy?).

(Text written by Mary Beth Winn, University at Albany, S.U.N.Y., autumn 2007)

Vol. I: 34.5 x 24 cm.
Vol. II: 34.5 x 24 cm.

© Det Kongelige Bibliotek 2007