LE TROISIESME LIVRE D'AMADIS DE GAVLE...
Paris, Estienne Groulleau ; 1555
2 parts in 1 vol.
8vo: 4 1/4 by 6 3/4"
[4]-CLXVIII, [8]-CLXII ff. (f. LXXIII in 1st part missing)
Dampstaining throughout.
Original calf binding, covers blind-ruled with a central flower tool and gilt small angular ones, spine with raised bands (rebacked, edges and corners repaired, small loss repaired to lower covers).
- Translation from Spanish by Nicolas d'Herberay des Essarts of the popular chivalric romance (1st: 1540-1548),
illustrated with 35 woodcuts in-text and 2 full-page one's.
Groulleau's printer's mark on title page.
Text in French

Extremely rare French translation from Spanish by Nicolas d'Herberay des Essarts of the Amadis de Gaule’s adventures, the most popular chivalric romance of 16th-century Europe.
De Herberay’s translations have been hailed as an “acte fondateur” in the development of French prose (Chatelain).
The tales of Amadis de Gaula, of supposed Iberian origin, enthralled audiences across two continents from Spanish conquistadors to German sequel-writers
De Herberay’s translations were revolutionary on many counts: as Chatelain points out, it was the elegant design of his books as much as their prose which truly manifested an “esprit nouveau” in the history of French literature. Along with his delicate, Fontainbleau-inspired woodcuts, the printer Estienne Groulleau retained in the present work the clear format and “lisibilité parfaite” of the original editions including single-column text and roman type instead of gothic. However, the smaller format of the present volume probably reflected the increasing popularity of the genre and the need for a low-cost, accessible edition. Indeed, in Germany and England Amadis was known chiefly through French translations like the present work.
The first printed Amadis de Gaula was a Spanish creation by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo in 1508. By the time Nicolas de Herberay introduced the hero into the French vernacular (the second to appear after Portuguese) in 1540, he had become popular enough to rival Pantagruel:
“it is remarkable that just at the time when Rabelais published the second and best book of his Pantagruel, in which the ideality and realism of the Renaissance blossom to the full, there was a certain revival of the chivalric romance…The gallant achievements of courtly knights, their mystical and platonic loves, were a delight to Francis I, and charmed a whole generation.” (Dowden, A History of French Literature)
Although the subsequent swathe of sequels prompted Cervantes to satirize the ‘knight-errant’ genre in Don Quixote (whose idol is Amadis), Quixote’s barber proclaims the original Amadis de Gaula the “best of its kind”. The present work - as the French editions did not follow the Spanish divisions exactly - actually represents part of the Spanish Book IX, one of the numerous sequels produced by Feliciano de Silva to quench popular demand. It includes, like all the tales of Amadis, a gross abundance of star-crossed lovers, damsels in distress, knights-errant, and illegitimate children. The present volume specifically recounts the adventures of love and intrigue which Lisuarte and Perion, grandsons of Amadis, suffer from Greece to Ireland, including encounters with ape-men and giantesses.
Jean-Marc Chatelain, “L’illustration de’Amadis de Gaule dans les éditions françaises du XVIe siècle” in Cahiers V. L. Saulnier, Les Amadis en France au XVIe siècle (2000); Dowden, A History of French Literature (2004); Coward, A History of French Literature (2002)



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