[Special bookbinding] Le treziesme livre d'Amadis de Gaule:

traduit nouvellement d'Espagnol en François, par I[acques] G[ohory] P[arisien]. Traittant les hauts faits d'armes du gentil chevalier Sylves de la Selvem filz de l'empereur Amadis de Grece (...). Montluel [Rhône Alpes], B. Pro, 1576, 507,(15) p., contemporary or slightly later gilt calf, both boards with the crowned arms of a member of the Le Bascle d'Argenteuil family, ribbed back with besides the title in each compartment a small crowned dolphin (the sign of Le Dauphin, the French title for the male heir-apparent), 16mo.

First quire with reinforced margins; head margin narrow, but not affecting the text; binding with minimal defects. Good copy with engraved armorial bookplate of Le Camus (according to old attribution) to inside front board. Very rare edition of the thirteenth part (part 12a in the Spanish version) of the Amadis de Gaule, one of the most frequently published and read collections of light-hearted chivalric stories in 16th-century Spain and France. We were unable to precisely determine the combination of the arms (incidentally exactly similar to the arms of the Dutch city of Almelo) on the boards and the sign of the Dauphin. French bookbindings exist from periods of various Dauphins carrying such dolphins, on the boards and/ or spine. In terms of dating our binding comes closest to Henry IV (1553-1610), he became king of France in 1589.