Jean Traynier, Book "the Fifteen Joys Of Marriage" 32 Etchings And 1 Original Drawing, 1946

Jean TRAYNIER, illustrator | Anonymous [Antoine de La Sale]. QUINDECIM MATRIMONII GAUDIA | THE FIFTEEN JOYS OF WEDDING. Thirty-two etchings by Jean Traynier, dedication "homage of the illustrator signed Jean Traynier, Fenêtre ouverte sur l'esprit, Paris, 1949 [printed on October 26, 1948] 1 volume in-4 (28.5 x 19.5 cm), in sheets of 145 pages. 15 etchings in the text and outside the text (including two on double-page). 15 chapter heads in etching. Text printed in black and red chalk, decorated with numerous ornaments engraved on wood by the artist. Folded cover decorated with blind stamping on the first cover. Unique edition of only 39 copies all printed on Lana vellum paper on the form. This one, one of the 15 copies to which a suite in bistre with remarks, a suite of chapter starts, a copperplate and a sketch were added, copy number 18, the final edition of the book Edition made at the expense of some bibliophiles on the presses of Pierre Gaudin for typography, master printer A. de Clerck pressier. The etchings of Jean Traynier were printed on the hand presses of Paul Prévoté under the direction of the artist. Les Quinze joies de mariage is a French satirical text in prose published anonymously in the middle of the 15th century and attributed to Antoine de La Sale, which presents a humorous and acute picture of marital quarrels and deceptions: misogynistic satire is juxtaposed with a merciless analysis of the blindness of spouses placed in everyday and concrete situations. The author parodies a popular devotional text, the Fifteen Joys of the Virgin, and lists in fifteen tableaux the "joys", that is to say the terrible misfortunes of man caught in the "trap" of marriage, presented as the source of all domestic, erotic and other evils, and above all as the origin of the supreme misfortune of every human being: the loss of freedom. The tone is clearly misogynistic and anti-feminist and is part of a medieval tradition that goes back to Saint Jerome (notably his Adversus Jovinianum) where feminine machinations and tricks cause the misfortune of man; but the husband is presented as an unimaginative oaf, "transformed into a donkey without the need for any enchantment", as guilty as his wife, and who has brought his misfortune on himself: "God has only given cold to those he knows are warmly enough wrapped up to be able to bear it. "The text offers a lively and cheerful picture of the pitfalls of marriage, without any desire to correct morals, but by casting an ironic, always amused glance. The interest of the text lies in particular in the fact that each of the fifteen tableaux, half-narrative, half-satirical, in a language close to the spoken language, is in itself a short story with many lively and realistic dialogues. The switching of the general truth towards the fictional scene is carried out by adverbs such as the frequent "à l'aventure" (par hasard in Middle French), which signal a change in discursive regime at the beginning of each tableau.