LA LITURGIE ANGLOISE. OU LE LIURE DES PRIERES PUBLIQUES, DE L';ADMINISTRATION DES SACREMENS, & AUTRES ORDRES & CEREMONIES DE L';EGLISE D';ANGLETERRE. NOUUELLEMENT TRADUIT EN FRANÇOIS PAR L';ORDONNANCE DE SA MAIESTIÉ DE LA GRANDE BRETAIGNE by [Book of Common Prayer - French] - 1616

A Londres: Par Iehan Bill, imprimatur du Roy, 1616. [544]pp. A-E4 [2]A-2R4; A-Z3 (plus blank). Quarto. Contemporary armorial calf. Titles within woodcut borders, decorated initials, contemporary typographic wastesheets utilized in binding. Light smear to 2H1v, occasional marginal tidemarks, a couple signatures starting, covers splayed and a bit discolored, lower joint split, early ink ownership inscription on front binder's blank, more annotations on verso of rear binder's blank, marginal flaw in fore-edge of 2E4; still, if one elected to discard the remaining not insignificant vestigial virtues of the original binding, a copy that could be rendered fairly agreeable if placed in modern dress. First edition of the first French translation of the 1603 King James I Prayer Book, translated by Pierre de Laune, past of the French Reformed congregation in Norwich. The translation was "originally commissioned by James I to promote a royal marriage between Henry Prince of Wales (d. 1612) with the French princess Christine; some years later the project was revived in connection with the marriage of Charles Prince of Wales & Princess Henrietta Maria of France ..." - Griffiths. The section of the Psalms has its own woodcut decorated title-leaf (2R4). Although common enough institutionally -- ESTC locates eleven copies in North America, spread over 8 locations - the last perfect copy noted in ABPC is the Evelyn copy (1977), with only one other appearance following that, a copy lacking a blank and one text leaf, GRIFFITHS 36.2 STC 16431. ESTC S108736.