It’s an almost priceless cookbook. THE meat maker de Taillevent, is auctioned Thursday by Christie’s in Paris estimated at half a million euros. This work from the end of the 15th century comes from the sale of a small part of the library of an enthusiast, the Belgian Pierre de Crombrugghe.
“Baron de Crombrugghe’s passion for both culinary art and bibliophilia – a combination of taste and knowledge – is at the origin of the most famous French-language gastronomic collection in private hands”, explained Christie’s in a press release. . The “key piece” is “not only the first cookbook in French, but this incunabula edition printed in Lyon around 1495 is the first illustrated”, added the auction house.
Between 80,000 and 120,000 euros for another live cooking
Guillaume Tirel, known as Taillevent (1310-1395), cook to Kings Charles V and Charles VI, put his signature on this collection of recipes which had been compiled from the end of the previous century. The “Viandier” went through dozens of editions until 1615. This copy, “beautiful incunabula in quarto format” according to Christie’s, is the work of a master printer from Lyon, Martin Havard. “Preserved in a vestige of its original binding”, it is estimated between 400,000 and 600,000 euros.
Also for sale is a copy of Very excellent cookery book from 1542, with 350 Renaissance recipes, estimated between 80,000 and 120,000 euros. It is one of the most influential cookbooks of all time, which “attests to the decisive revival of gastronomy during the Renaissance”.
“Le Platine en francoys” is a competitor to the Taillevent book, written by the Italian Bartolomeo Platina in the 1470s. This French translation from 1505, printed in Lyon, is estimated at 60,000 to 80,000 euros. The same estimate is made of a 1655-1656 copy of an “emblematic diptych of French cuisine in the Grand Siècle”, “Le Cuisinier françois” by François Pierre, known as La Varenne. The work was a precursor in the field of pastry.