LA CHESNAYE (Nicole de). The Ship of Health with the Rudder - Lot 20

LA CHESNAYE (Nicole de). The Ship of Health with the Rudder of the Human Body, the Condemnation of Feasts in Praise of Depth and Sobriety, and the Treatise on the Passions of the Soul. (At the end) Printed in Paris on the seventeenth day of April, the year one thousand five hundred and eleven (1511) by Michel le Noir… under the sign of the crowned white rose. In-4 (193 x 130 mm), modern brown calfskin binding, blind-stamped with gilt fleurons in the corners, decorated spine. Second edition,1 as rare and beautiful as the first, published in 1507 by Antoine Vérard, of this highly intriguing work that is at once gastronomic, dietary, astrological, and moral in nature. Published anonymously, *La Nef de santé* is a collection of four texts attributed in whole or in part to Nicole (or Nicolas) de La Chesnaye, whose name appears in an acrostic at the end of the Prologue. Little is known about this author. His father, also named Nicole and with whom he is sometimes confused, served as maître d’hôtel to Kings Louis XI, Charles VII, and Louis XII. Enjoying the patronage of his uncle, the humanist Guillaume Budé, our Nicole was appointed in 1515 by Francis I as praetor (podestà) of Milan, a position he likely held until the loss of Milan in 1522. Bayard’s death (1523) inspired him to write an epistle and an epitaph, published in *The Deeds… of Knight Bayard* by Symphorien Champier (Lyon, 1528). These are the only works explicitly signed by him in his capacity as praetor. Appointed secretary to the king to replace Guillaume Budé around 1522, he became vice president of the Parliament of Chambéry in 1548. He died shortly after 1549. In addition to *La Nef de santé*, he is credited with the French translation of Robert Gaguin’s *Compendium super francorum gestis* (1514), which bears the same acrostic. The first part of this work, which gives it its title, discusses both the nutritional and gustatory qualities of a wide variety of foods, including meats, fish, fruits, wines, cheeses, and so on. The *Gouvernail du corps humain*, which follows, is a short work in prose and verse translated from the work of the Italian physician Benedetto Reguardati (Benedictus de Nursia, 1398–1469), devoted to the influence of the stars on the human body. The third part, titled *Condemnation of Banquets*, is the most important and remarkable. Spanning more than 3,600 lines of verse, it features thirty-eight characters, including seven merry companions invited by *Dinner*, *Supper*, and *Banquet*. Several meals follow, during which the guests feast at lavishly set tables. Four of them die, struck down by illnesses such as Apoplexy, Paralysis, Colic, and Gout… After a complaint by the survivors and a verdict handed down by Experience and Remedy—advised by Hippocrates, Galen, Averroes, and Avicenna—Banquet is hanged. Dinner and Supper, considered necessary for life, are spared on the condition that there always be a six-hour interval between them… This morality play, reprinted in the *Recueil des farces, soties et moralités du XVe siècle* published by Paul Lacroix in 1859, occupies an important place in the history of the genre’s evolution, and G. Cohen (Comic Theater in France in the 15th Century and the First Half of the 16th Century. Paris, 1939–40) even regards it as the genre’s high point. Two contemporary tapestries, now preserved in Villevêque and Nancy, illustrate episodes from this text, which was likely performed on stage at the time. More recently, an adaptation directed by Charles Dullin premiered in 1922 at the Théâtre de l’Atelier, with Antonin Artaud in the role of Apoplexie. The collection concludes with *The Passions of the Soul*, a verse play translated—like *The Rudder*—from Benedictus of Nursia, in which the author, drawing on the authority of Galen, condemns the excesses of overly passionate love, excessive boldness, impatient anger, carnal copulation… Title in red and black adorned with a beautiful grotesque initial, a full-page woodcut on the reverse showing the author presenting his book to the king, a very beautiful two-thirds-page illustration at the beginning of *Condemnation*, about thirty small woodcuts in the text, including the seven anthropomorphic planets drawn specifically for *Le Gouvernail* and fifteen figures for *Les Passions de l’âme*; all of these illustrations are copied from or freely inspired by the Vérard edition. Numerous beautiful illustrated initials, some featuring grotesque figures. Michel Le Noir’s mark on the reverse of the last leaf. A very fine copy, with wide margins, perfectly preserved; the only one cited by Bechtel (Catalogue des gothiques français, 2008, N-9) in a private collection. Ex libris bearing the motto “Pro captu lectoris.” Acquired by Émile Rossignol in 1966.

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