8vo. [16], 312ff. With an engraved title page and engraved device of printed and bookseller Jehan Petit to verso of terminal leaf. Contemporary limp vellum, title in manuscript to spine, author's name in manuscript to lower edge. Extremities rubbed, marked, and discoloured, spine dulled. Small worm-track to lower margins of three terminal leaves.

An early sixteenth century Latin edition of the principal work of leading exponent of the early Humanist movement at Paris, Robert Gauguin (1433?-1501). An important chronicle of French history, the Compendium de origine et gestis Francorum was first published by Pierre Le Dru in 1495. Gauguin, frustrated by the plethora of printing errors in the first edition, remained involved in the production of subsequent editions, to each of which he contributed additional material to bring the history up to date. Notably, Gauguin assisted Guillaume Fichet in establishing the Sorbonne printing press, the first press in France. In the same year in which the Compendium initially appeared, Gauguin began a friendship with Erasmus. A commendatory letter Erasmus wrote in praise of Gauguin appeared in the Le Dru edition, marking the first appearance of the Dutch humanist in print.

OCLC records copies of this edition at just seven locations (California, Columbia, Michigan, Newberry, Oxford, Trinity College, and Sydney).