Systema theologogicum ex praeadamitarum hypothesis. Pars prima [Ensemble] Sunagogis Iudaeorum universis

Very rare first edition with a folding map of the Holy Land.
Contemporary full brown calf binding, spine with five raised bands decorated with double fillets and gilt fleurons, double gilt fillet on covers, all edges speckled.
Headcaps very skillfully restored, otherwise very fine copy.
Contemporary annotation on the title page "Fait par le Sr de la Pebere en Hollande et bruslé à Paris" ["Made by Sr de la Pebere in Holland and burned in Paris"].
"Livre singulier, et fort recherché, dans lequel l'auteur (qui n'a garde de se nommer, mais qu'on sait être Isaac La Peyrère) prétend démontrer, par l'autorité de S. Paul, qu'il a existé des hommes avant Adam [...] Le volume fut condamné dès son apparition à être brûlé par la main du bourreau. L'auteur lui-même, quoiqu'attaché à la maison du prince de Condé, n'échappa aux persécutions qu'en allant à Rome se jeter aux pieds du Pape, et abjurer la foi protestante. Le scandale que produisit ce livre est cause sans doute qu'il n'est porté dans aucun cata
logue du temps, pas même dans le grand catalogue elzévirien de 1674." ["Singular book, and much sought after, in which the author (who is careful not to name himself, but who is known to be Isaac La Peyrère) claims to demonstrate, by the authority of St. Paul, that men existed before Adam [...] The volume was condemned upon its appearance to be burned by the executioner's hand. The author himself, though attached to the house of the Prince of Condé, escaped persecution only by going to Rome to throw himself at the Pope's feet, and abjure the Protestant faith. The scandal produced by this book is doubtless why it appears in no contemporary catalog, not even in the great Elzevirian catalogue of 1674."] (Willems)
Provenance: armorial bookplate of Balthazar-Henri de Fourcy (1669-1754), abbot of St-Sever in the diocese of Coutances then of St Wandrille and the Priory of Bons-Hommes. Dry stamp of the Gianni de Marco library on the first endpaper.