Provenance
1. Printed in Paris, as stated on the title-page (sig. A1) and confirmed in the colophon (sig. L4v), by the printer-publisher Germain Hardouyn. The date of this edition is inferred from the almanac which covers the years 1526 to 1541 (sig. A3v). Printed in Paris around 1534 by the printer-publisher Germain Hardouyn as indicated in the colophon (transcribed below). The book is not dated, but it contains an almanac from the years 1526-1541 (for this edition see Bohatta, 1924, 1109; Lacombe, 1907, 359; and Moreau, 1972-1993, vol. III, 1526, 1019).
Germain Hardouyn was a prolific printer active in Paris from 1500 to 1541, who worked in tandem with his brother Gillet or Gilles Hardouyn. Together or separately, the two brothers furnished the Paris market and the provinces with a large number of impressions of printed Books of Hours, often hand-colored (see Renouard, 1965, 198; J. Müller, Dictionnaire abrégé des imprimeurs/éditeurs français du XVIe s., 1970, p. 76).
2. Charles Ewbank, his engraved name pasted on the upper pastedown on the upper left-hand corner. This might be Charles Ewbank, born in Valenciennes (1819-1867).
3. Dupont de Saint Ouën (Alphonse Fulgence) (1820-1892), from Valenciennes, with an engraved heraldic ex-libris bookplate pasted on front pastedown: he is recorded as a collector of books but also paintings (see Valenciennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Abel de Pujol, “César se rendant au sénat aux Ides de Mars”). Interestingly, Dupont de Saint Ouën was an accomplished engraver himself who consigned a large number of etchings and views of Valenciennes in the 1840s and 1850s.
4. European Continental Collection.