Antique and first editions of bibles and sacred texts, theology and religious controversies: Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, pagan beliefs and religions

Rare illustrated reissue of Giovanni Battista Mascolo’s Encomia Coelituum, published jointly in Vienna and Augsburg between 1753 and 1755. First published in Naples in 1638, the text is here expressly reprinted “ob raritatem & elegantiam” and enriched with a remarkable series of 366 engravings, one for each day of the year. Most of the compositions are by Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner, alongside Franz Sigrist and other artists active in Augsburg; the plates were engraved by several burin engravers from this artistic circle.

First edition, rare. This is the second book devoted by the author to this subject. Manuscript bibliographical note on the endpaper, in black ink, by F. Annibal Destouches, 1834.
Half glazed camel calf binding. Spine with false raised bands decorated with fleurons. Long-grain morocco boards with gilt roll border.
Contemporary full brown sheep binding, speckled. Decorated spine with raised bands. Gilt title. Small lack at head. Tailcap partly worn. Upper joint cracked at head and foot over 7 cm. Corners bumped.

First edition of all the texts comprising the collection. Each of the funeral orations features a title vignette with the arms of the deceased and a second as a title headpiece with a medallion portrait as well as a tailpiece. The dates of the orations range between 1695 and 1714. The two letters from Cardinal de Noailles that conclude the collection date respectively from 1712 and 1714.

Contemporary full brown speckled and glazed sheep binding. Spine with raised bands richly decorated. Havana morocco title label. Roulette on the leading edges. Rubbing to headcaps and joints. Scuffing and brown stains on the upper part of the front board. 2 dampstains on the Duke of...

First bilingual edition translated and annotated by Le Maistre de Sacy. Ruled copy. Text in double columns.

Contemporary full burgundy morocco binding. Jansenist spine with raised bands. Roll tooling on edges and board-edges. All edges gilt. Trace of dampstain in lower margin of first leaves fading away, reappearing on some leaves in the middle and at the end.
Before appearing in its entirety in 1696 under the secular title Bible de Port-Royal, Pierre Thomas du Fossé gathered the various manuscripts left by Le Maistre de Sacy at his death in 1684 and published them punctually. He continued the unfinished work and published separately first the translations...

Rare Collection of Three Theological Commentaries: 

-In libros Paralipomenon, sive Chronicorum Commentarius. Ludwig Lavater. Printed by Christophorus Froschoverus, Zurich, 1573. First edition, with the printer’s mark on the title-page. Preface by Ludwig Lavater dated February 1573. Numerous genealogical tables.

- Praelectiones Ioannis Calvini in librum prophetiarum Danielis. Jean Calvin. Edited by Jean Budée and Charles de Jonvilliers. Apud Bartholomaeum Vincentium, 1571. Place not indicated, but almost certainly Geneva, based on typographical evidence and the preface dated 14 September 1571. Hebrew text in bold, with translation to the...

First edition.
Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Decorated spine with raised bands. Brown sheep title-label. Rubbing, scratches to boards. Light scattered foxing to the first leaves. Cut to outer margin of the last 2 leaves over 1 cm.
The author's only published sermon, on the unity of the church. From the opening words Bossuet links the Catholic church to Jewish history.

Second Elzevir edition of Milton's first text, which was originally published in 1651 in Amsterdam. First edition of Milton's Second and Third Defences.
Full polished tobacco calf bindings, ca. 1820. Spines with raised bands, decorated with four floral tools, fillets and rolls. Chocolate morocco title and volume labels. Cold-stamped border on the boards with small corner fleurons. Inner roll-tooled border. All edges gilt. A handsome copy.


NB: This volume is available at the bookshop on request within 48 hours.

First edition.

Contemporary full speckled brown sheep binding. Decorated spine with raised bands. Brown sheep title label. Headcap torn away. Loss to upper joint at head. Upper joint split at tail with loss. Library label at head. Corners very much bumped. 

Complete first edition in six volumes, illustrated with decorative headpieces. 

Contemporary bindings in full marbled brown calf, spines with six raised bands decorated with red morocco title and volume labels, fleurons and double gilt frame fillets, triple fillets stamped in blind framing the boards, double gilt fillets on the leading edges, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, all edges marbled. Title pages in red and black. Headcaps worn, title labels of volumes 1, 3, 4 and 6 and volume labels of volumes 4, 5 and 6 missing, some lacks to the compartments, leather split at the joint of the first volume, joints of other volumes often slightly cracked at head or foot, boards and...

New edition prepared by Pierre Baquelier (this edition had already appeared in 1517 and 1519). Two folding plates of genealogical trees illustrating the laws of consanguinity. Large title vignette depicting Gratian teaching the clergy. Printer’s device under the colophon fo.ccccxxii. Printed in Gothic type in two columns (52 lines). Edition for which the privilege was shared with Jean Petit. Title page printed in red and black. Copy fully rubricated in red, with titles also in red. Decorated woodcut initials. The appendices include a biography of Gratian; the Decretum abbreviatum in oratione soluta by Johannes Andreae, as well as the text of the plates: Declaratio arboris...

New edition. Printer's device on title page. Colophon: Excudebat Robertus STephanus Parisiis, Ann. M. D. XXXIII. octavo cal. sept.
Full brown marbled sheep binding ca 1920, pastiche of a Renaissance binding, signed L. P. Thébaut. Spine with raised bands decorated with 5 small fleurons. Central roundel on covers, and thick gilt frame. Tear with loss at foot. Black stain at head and foot. Corners rubbed. Some foxing. Joints slightly cracked. Good copy.
Collection of three texts by Roman writers: The illustrated lives by Pliny the Younger, which are short biographies of famous men (Pompey, Hannibal, Scipio...); Suetonius's book on grammarians and rhetoricians is the last part of...

The rare first edition, illustrated with a title-frontispiece and 22 plates after paintings by Eustache Le Sueur and engraved by François Chauveau. Captions of the engravings in two columns, one verse in Latin, with its translation alongside. Brunet III, 1020.
Half chocolate-brown glazed shagreen binding circa 1860 with corners, signed L. Fixon at the bottom of the last leaf. Jansenist spine with raised bands. Engraved title, as well as the initials S. D. Tears with lacks to the lower board. Cut to one corner of the lower board and corner slightly bumped. Some rubbing. Fine copy, very fresh.
Le Sueur painted between 1645 and 1648 the cycle of the life of Saint Bruno, a set of 22...

First edition. One title-frontispiece.
Contemporary full red morocco binding à la Du Seuil. Spine with raised bands richly decorated. Gilt title. Covers decorated with a central frame of three fillets and a dotted fillet, with corner tools; second frame similar to the first with small angular tools. Lacking the two endpapers pasted down on the first and last leaves. Very handsome copy.
Antoine Godeau (1605-1672), Bishop of Grasse, poet and exegete, from the moment he became a priest (March 16, 1636) then bishop appointed by Richelieu, Godeau abandoned literature and turned to religious writings. He is the author of several paraphrases, notably on the famous psalms of David, the...

First edition.
Full aubergine morocco binding, late 19th century, signed by Chambrolle-Duru. Jansenist spine with raised bands. Rich decorative gilt board-edges. All edges gilt. Spine uniformly faded to dark green. A handsome copy, nevertheless.
Sermons by one who was considered the greatest preacher of his time. The sermons went through many editions and were widely read in the 19th century.

First edition of this volume 14 of the Essais de morale, whose volumes appeared separately and whose publication spanned several decades. Copy entirely ruled.
Contemporary full old red morocco binding. Jansenist spine with raised bands. Gilt title. Roulette on edges and interior fillet. A slight lack at foot. One leaf sprung. One corner slightly bumped. Dark areas on lower board.
Pierre Nicole was, with Antoine Arnauld, one of the principal authors of Jansenism. Gouget drew upon several manuscripts, notably the memoirs of Nicole's greatest friend, to write a detailed history of Nicole's life, whose purpose is not to draw a portrait but to establish the actions and facts of his...

New post-incunabula edition in Petit Jehan. Gothic print in two columns to 45 lines. Thumbnail of the printer on the title page. The first edition was published in 1498. Jehan Petit reprinted several times in sermons 1506-1522 (Brunet). Many white initials on black (full of stars or others).
Colophon transcribed: "Opera Johannis Barbier impensis vero honesti viri Johannis Small Bibliopole parisiensis impressorum. Anno. M.CCCCC. VIII quarto nonas maii. »
Full burgundy morocco binding late ^nineteenth or early ^{twentieth century.} Back with nerves decorated with jewels box section 5. Golden tail date basis. Cold coaching nets on the dishes. Gilt edges. Wetting...

Two editions appeared simultaneously with the same collation, one with the address of the hôtel de Thou and this one, presumably the privilege was given to both publishers for this first edition; it is illustrated with a portrait of the author as frontispiece by Louis-Joseph Duplessi engraved by Nicolas de Launay; some head- and tailpieces on wood.

Copy in original wrappers under pale pink temporary covers, spine with manuscript title. Half-title page torn at top as well as some dampstains; lacks at head, otherwise good copy.

First edition of this French translation, illustrated with a frontispiece containing 3 figures and a title vignette by Quinau. A first translation had appeared under the title Hipparchus in 1645; one could not say however that this new translation carried out by a Protestant is literal, it is rather a free translation to which a pamphleteering charge has been added.
Contemporary full blonde sheep binding. Richly decorated raised spine. Beige morocco title-label. Wormholes on spine with a lack to title-label. Handsome copy nevertheless.
There would be according to the author, both a reprehensible commerce and one that would not be so.