This book is a limited edition facsimile of a book published by Guy Marchant in the 1400’s, the title is La Danse Macabre, the text is in Latin and French, and it is #410 of 500 copies printed by Editions Des Quatre Champions in 1925. (See the limitation page at the rear.) 
It also comes with a booklet titled “La Danse Macabre De Guy Marchant, Notice Par Pierre Champion …”, which was an introductory essay written by French historian Pierre Champion. The essay provided context, explanation, and historical background for the Dance of Death and framed the work for a modern audience. (The booklet by Pierre Champion has 15 pages of text and a blank page at the end.) There is also a smaller separate woodcut of a figure named Francois and an advertisement for a series of books about the Russes Ballet, a Parisian ballet company founded by Sergei Diaghilev and which was noted for its performances between 1909 and 1929. 
Originally published in Paris by Guyot Marchant circa 1485 - 1486, the book has a total of 38 pages with text and woodcut images, one page with two images on the page, 21 pages of just text, one page has a heading about the next section of the book (about women and the Dance of Death and the conflict between body and soul - “le debat du corps et la lame”), 7 blank pages, a contents page and limitation page at the rear, and a page with instructions for the bookbinder (”Pour le relieur”). 
Guy Marchant (also Guyot Marchant) was an early Parisian printer known for his Danse Macabre woodcuts. He was a master of arts and active from 1483 till 1505 or 1506, best known for publishing the first illustrated edition of La Danse Macabre in book form (1485), and he was also a priest. He used different printer's devices, several showing a shoemaker's workshop, his works were mainly devotional texts, and his woodcuts were considered to be some of the finest of the period, especially his woodcuts in La Danse Macabre.  
The Danse Macabre originally was a poem written to remind people of the inevitability of death and to be prepared for it at all times. Some scholars believe the poems were written by a German poet named Macaber in the early 1400’s, but not much is known about the poet. 
The time period is a different story. The horrors of the 14th century - the famines, the Hundred Years’ War in France, and the Black Death - all hit Europe very hard and death was omnipresent, and Danse Macabre was a reminder that death can strike anyone, and in the end, everyone dies. 
Theatrical performances of the Danse Macabre were also performed on improvised stages in sacred places like churches, churchyards, and cemeteries  during the late Middle Ages. Performers portrayed figures from all walks of life, from peasants and popes to children and laborers, all being led away by skeletons or personified figures of Death, and these performances in churches delivered a stern warning that no matter what your social status was, everyone was equal in the face of death, and the printed version by Guy Marchant popularized this theme even more.
Marchant’s woodcuts for Danse Macabre were based on a famous mural at the Cimetière des Innocents - the Cemetery of the Holy Innocents in Paris - and the Danse Macabre, or the Dance of Death, was a medieval allegory reminding us that death comes for everyone, no matter what their class or social status in life was, and people needed to look to spiritual salvation while they were still alive.  
The theme also appears in modern-day films, such as Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal”, and it appears in songs like "Danse Macabre” by Ghost, which explored coping with plague and mortality. 
The book measures 11 1/2 x 8 inches wide, with a paper label on the front of the fold-out binder, with a greetings page at the beginning that has a stamped cachet reading “Bibliotheque Imperiale Impr”, which means the book was printed by the Imperial Library. The next leaf has an imprint of the Royale Bibliotheque, with a fleur-de-lis in the center, which indicated the royal coat of arms, and the imprint translates to the Royal Library, indicating the book was part of a royal collection.
The first illustrated leaf depicts the “Author” or “Lacteur” figure who introduces the reader to the book and uses the metaphor of a mirror to help the readers reflect on their own life and mortality, and death spares no one, regardless of their class or social standing, and the text on the leaf is in French and the banner above the Lacteur is in Latin.
The pages are very clean, with mild offset from some of the images. The binder has wear along the edges of the spine and light soiling and brown spots on the front cover of the binder, there is wear along the vertical flaps of the binder, but that doesn’t affect the pages inside, and the Champion booklet has mild offset on some of the pages. 
WorldCat shows numerous institutions having this book in their collections, while auction records for the book are sparse - we found auction records for a Simon Kra edition from 1927 that range from $800 to $1600, but that was not for Marchant’s book - original Guy Marchant printings from the late 15th century are extremely rare historical documents and realize very high prices - and there are no sales records for the book to show what the book has sold for in a setting outside of an auction. We found three sales prices for the book being offered on the rare book website we use - $120, a $150, and $400 - and we are starting the bidding low for this beautifully illustrated work by Guy Marchant. 
 

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