This book is titled La Dance Des Aveugles (The Dance of the Blind), a facsimile reproduction of the 15th century poem La Danse des Aveugles by Pierre Michault, and it is a limited edition by Adam Pilinski that was published in French in Paris in 1884 by Adolphe Labitte. The title page reads “La Dance Des Aveugles Composee En Vers Francis Par Pierre Michault, Reproduction En Fac-simile Par Adam Pilinski D’une Edition Sans Datę Imprimee Au Seizieme Siecle Par Le Petite Laurens, Paris, Vve Adolphe Labitte, Libraire de la Bibliothèque Nationale … 1884”, which means the book was originally written in French by Pierre Michault and published as an undated edition from the sixteenth century by Le Petit Laurens, the book here was later reproduced by Adam Pilinksi, and we believe it is a presentation copy signed by the widow of the publisher, Adolph Labitte. 
“Vve Adolphe Labitte” towards the bottom of the title page means the book was published or sold by the widow of Adolphe Labitte. (In French, “Vve” is an abbreviation for “veuve”, which translates to “widow.”) Adolphe Labitte was a bookseller and publisher (a libraire-éditeur) in Paris during the late 19th century. After his death, his widow took over the business, which was a common practice at the time, she continued to use the business name of “Adolphe Labitte”, and we believe the limitation page might have been signed by the widow of Labitte, who died in 1882. (It might have been a gift to Adam Pilinski because his name is mentioned on the third line of the inscription - “a A. Pilinski” - and Labitte’s name is mentioned on the last line of the inscription.) 
The white boards are titled “Dance Des Aveugles” in gilt on the front cover, the front flyleaf has a small pencilled note in the top corner, followed by the half-title, then the limitation page, which says there were only 50 copies printed on Papier Ancien (Ancient Paper), three copies printed on vellum, and the plates were destroyed for the book (“Les  planches sont detruites”), so this copy by Pilinski is rare, and probably rarer if it was signed by the widow of the publisher. The book has 64 pages of text and 18 lithographs, as well as Pilinski’s colophon at the rear. (The colophon is basically the same as that of Petit Laurens’, but it seems Labitte just took out Petit Laurens’ name on the colophon page and put “Reproduction par Adam Pilinski a Paris” below the colophon.) The pages are unpaginated (unnumbered), except for Roman numerals at the bottom of a few pages - aiii, biii, ci, ciii, di, diii, ei, fiii - and we are not sure sure why those pages have letters and Roman numerals at the bottom, but they are most likely printers' marks, specifically "signatures" or "quire marks," used by bookbinders to ensure the pages were assembled in the correct order. This was a common practice in medieval manuscripts and early printed books (Incunabula).  
Pierre Michault was a fifteenth century priest and poet who worked as secretary to the Count of Charolais, he was credited with writing Dance aux Aveugles circa 1465 - others have said the book was published in 1479 or 1495, which means it was an Incunabula book printed before 1500 - and it is believed Michault died around 1467.
Adam Pilinski (1810 - 1887) was a Polish engraver and lithographer who settled in Vienna after the Polish Insurrection of 1830, a major nationalist revolt in Warsaw against Russia to restore Polish sovereignty. He developed a process for creating high-quality facsimiles of old transcripts and artwork (the “Pilinski process”), and after he married, he worked as an engraver at the Museum of History on France in Versailles, and he was known for completing incomplete antique books for his bibliophile clients through the use of homography. 
The book is an allegorical vision of three blind forces affecting humanity: Love, Fortune, and Death, and it was written by Michault in text and prose which reflected the times that Michault lived in - plague, death, and vast destruction throughout Europe in the Middle Ages - and the illustrations are filled with images of death, because that is what the population of Europe faced at the time. 
The book measures 8 3/4 x 5 5/8 inches wide and is in very good condition. The binding is tight, the signature on the limitation page is clean and clear, the text and illustrations are clean, but there is light soiling on the spine, light offset from the first three lithographs, there are occasional brown spots in the margins, some pages have nicks and minor chips on the edges, with small tears and corner creases on a few pages, the page before biii has a larger brown spot in the margin, and overall the book is in very good condition, despite these blemishes. 
WorldCat shows only two copies listed in Special Collections around the world  (at the Bibliotheque Interuniversitaire Sainte-Genevieve and the Bibliotheque National de France, both located in Paris), there are numerous copies of later editions from the 1900’s in Special Collections, and the [J. P.] Morgan Library has an original copy from 1495. 
Auction records show one copy sold by Christie’s for $2040 in 2005, and that was for one of the three vellum copies produced by Pilinski (and in their description of the vellum copy, Christie’s called Pilinski the leading facsimile scribe of France), and we couldn’t find any sales records for the book, probably became there were only 50 copies by Pilinski ever published, as well as the three copies on vellum, and because we don’t have much more information to go by, we are starting the bidding low for this limited edition facsimile of a rare 1400’s book that predated the emblemata genre. 
 

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