Antique bibles, books of hours, Christian theology, mysticism, hagiographies, religious controversies and Catholic and Protestant literature

Three quarto volumes in uniform contemporary full dark red morocco. Spines with raised bands richly decorated in gilt, boards tooled in the Du Seuil manner with double gilt panels and floral cornerpieces around the central compartment, gilt rolls to the board edges, elaborate gilt turn-ins, all edges gilt.

Bindings rubbed, with the corners slightly turned. Small loss of leather at the head of the New Testament volume and a loss at the foot of the lower joint of the first volume. The opening endleaf of volume I is becoming detached. The first six leaves of the New Testament show marginal browning from earlier damp exposure, extending...

Second edition, published the year after the first. Text in Greek and Latin.

Illustrated with the printer's device on the title page, headpieces, initials, and tailpieces.

Superb contemporary red morocco binding, spine with five raised bands bearing Colbert's crowned cipher, centre of both covers stamped with his arms, boards framed three times in gilt, gilt roll-tooling on the board edges, all edges speckled, spine very lightly sunned, discreet rubbing to the corners, board edges and spine-ends on one abrasion to the lower cover and a faint dark mark on one compartment of the spine.

A sumptuous copy bound in morocco stamped with the arms and cipher of...

First edition, printed in 400 copies and dedicated in particular to the memory of the Armenians who were massacred because their industrious people stood in the way of German ambitions.

Spine and covers lightly and marginally sunned, small tears to the inside flaps of the wrappers, two small holes at the foot of the lower cover, unlettered spine.

Inscribed presentation copy, dated and signed by Antoine Poidebard to Vice Admiral Lejay, Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.

The first Paris edition, published simultaneously with the Brussels edition.

Most of the volumes bear a statement of fourth, seventh, or eighth edition.

Some foxing to several volumes.

Contemporary half tawny speckled sheep bindings, smooth spines decorated with double gilt fillets, red sheep lettering-pieces lettered "Oeuvres de V. Hugo", sky-blue sheep title and volume labels, volume label lacking from the fifth volume, three others partially lifting, marbled paper-covered boards, decorative endpapers and pastedowns.

First edition of the Gospels in Pierre Dassance’s translation. In addition to the four Gospels, it contains an extensive section on Jerusalem with 2 hand-coloured maps and 10 mounted China-paper engravings. The edition is illustrated with 10 steel engravings within elaborate Renaissance-style borders featuring birds, angels, scrolling foliage, and ornamental motifs. Every page of text is likewise surrounded by decorative borders of several repeating designs. Chromolithographic frontispiece and opening page with hand-illuminated title vignette and large historiated initial. A finely produced edition issued by Curmer.

Contemporary full red morocco binding. Spine with raised bands...

Rare new edition based on the first French translation, produced in 1699 by William Popple and published by the Widow of J. van Dyck. A major work by Martin Clifford, originally published anonymously in 1674 under the title A Treatise of Humane Reason, which provoked immediate controversy within the Anglican Church; in the tradition of Spinoza and anticipating Locke, the author assigns a prominent role to reason in the practice of Christian faith. Clifford's more radical positions are thought to have been moderated in the French translation.

Likely first edition of a theological and juridical work, unrecorded on WorldCat, complete with its woodcut title-page bearing multiple allusions to the Franciscan Order, including the cord and the arms of the Order. The lay members of the Confraternity of the Cord of Saint Francis, to whom the papal indulgences confirmed herein are addressed, were thereby enabled to associate themselves spiritually with the Franciscan Order without taking religious vows. Several preliminary pieces accompany the treatise, attractively embellished throughout with foliate, zoomorphic, and figural headpieces and...

Very rare first edition of this pamphlet issued by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, recounting the martyrdom of several Catholic missionaries in Tonkin in 1837 and 1838.

Only one copy recorded in WorldCat (Biblioteca Casanatense). No copy in the CCF.

Modern binding in half mottled tan calf, smooth spine ruled in gilt, date and place gilt at foot, longitudinal spine label, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved.

Some foxing.

First edition, illustrated with figures in the text (cf. Hage Chahine, 4405.)

Contemporary bradel binding in full beige percaline, smooth spine darkened, olive green shagreen lettering-piece, binding of the period.

Occasional foxing.

The sole edition of one of the earliest works by the numismatist Gustave-Léon Schlumberger (1844-1929), who specialised in the history of the Crusades and the Byzantine Empire.

Autograph inscription signed by Gustave-Léon Schlumberger to the archaeologist Alban-Emmanuel Guillaume-Rey (1837-1916), a specialist of medieval Syria.

First edition of this speculative theological inquiry into the date of the end of time, based on scriptural data.

Contemporary full mottled fawn calf, spine in five raised bands richly gilt with fleuroned compartments, red morocco title label, loss to the headcap, joints split at head and foot and restored, some rubbing to the spine, covers framed with a blind fillet, marbled endpapers, gilt edges to the boards with a few nicks, red-speckled edges, corners worn, binding of the period.

A few pencilled markings and marginal annotations to certain passages, library stamp on the title page, a light dampstain to the upper edge of one leaf, not affecting the text. 

The author...

Reprint of the Exposé statistique du Tunkin, first published in London in 1811 by Ant. Jean Bapt. de Montgon (cf. Cordier, Indosinica, 997).

Contemporary uniform half tawny calf bindings, smooth spines decorated with double gilt fillets, red and black calf lettering and volume labels, a few scuffs to the spines, marbled paper-covered boards, yellow edges.

Occasional light foxing.

A French missionary born at Bourgueil around 1764 and deceased in 1830, La Bissachère entered the Paris Foreign Missions Seminary before being sent to Tonkin in 1790, where he remained for seventeen years.

During his stay, he travelled extensively throughout the provinces...

Second edition, issued in the same year as the first, and illustrated with a folding colour map at the beginning of the first volume (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 2120; Caillet, 5293; Numa Broc, Asie, 247-249).

Tears to one joint of the first volume; spine of the second volume split with minor losses; a tear without loss to p. 407 of vol. II.

A valuable copy, bearing the signature "G. Rocquemaurel" on the title-pages.

This is Louis François Gaston Marie Auguste de Rocquemaurel (Toulouse, 1804–1878), a former student of the École polytechnique, second-in-command to Dumont d'Urville as lieutenant aboard the Astrolabe during the voyage...

First edition (cf. Mendelssohn I 696; not recorded by Gay.)

Some foxing.

Contemporary half tawny sheep, spine in five compartments with raised bands, bands tooled with gilt dotted rolls and decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, blue shagreen title-piece, author"s name in green shagreen, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, top edge red, period binding. 

Auguste Haussmann (Winterzenheim 1815 – Alger-Mustapha 1874), a diplomat, was appointed French consul at the Cape of Good Hope, where he collected traditions still current among the descendants of the French Huguenots who had settled at the Cape after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

Pages 1 to 134...

First edition illustrated at the end of the volume with 2 folding engraved plates by Gobille after drawings by Guillet, depicting an ancient theatre and a plan of Athens with its surroundings (cf. Blackmer 766. Weber 364. Brunet, Table, 22855.)

Contemporary full brown sheep binding, spine with four raised bands decorated with compartments tooled in gilt, now very rubbed, restorations to the spine and covers.

First historiographer of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, to which he was admitted in 1682, Guillet de Saint-George (Thiers, circa 1625 - Paris, 1705) became known through several writings, the principal ones relating to Greece and the Ottoman Empire.

First edition (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 2558).

Only one copy recorded in the CCF (BnF).

The First Convention of Peking (18 October 1860) was one of those unequal treaties through which the Western powers sought to impose their conception of international law upon China, which remained reluctant to comply with its provisions.

The clauses addressed in this brief memorandum concern, in particular, the full freedom of practice of the various Christian denominations as stipulated in Article 13.

Loss at the foot of the spine, marginal loss at the foot of the upper cover, minor spotting to the covers.

First edition (cf. Barbier, IV, 232. Palau, 260438.)

Contemporary full tawny calf binding, spine in five compartments ruled with gilt garlands and richly decorated with gilt tools, gilt rolls to the caps, a small loss at the foot of the spine, red morocco lettering-piece, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets to the edges, lower corners bumped, speckled edges, binding of the period.

Some light foxing.

First edition, one of 60 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the deluxe issue after 30 copies on Japan paper.

Full red morocco binding, spine slightly toned with five raised bands ruled in black, gilt date at foot, minor unobtrusive rubbing to the bands, gilt rolls to the headcaps, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt dentelle frame and double gilt fillet to the inside covers, original wrappers and spine preserved, gilt stippling to the edges, top edge gilt.

A fine copy, attractively bound.

First edition on ordinary paper.

Bradel binding in chocolate-brown half shagreen, smooth spine, date gilt at the tail, contemporary leather boards japonisants, embossed and polychrome, decorated with gilded and colorful floral motifs, marbled paper endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and restored spine preserved, later binding.

Exceptional presentation copy signed by Emile Zola: "à Edmond de Goncourt son ami Emile Zola."

Below the presentation inscription, a manuscript gift inscription by Edmond de Goncourt: "Edmond de Goncourt à Pauline Zeller."

A fine edition complete with all 12 steel engravings with tissue guards after paintings by Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Philippe de Champaigne, and Hyacinthe Rigaud, and its chromolithographic title page. Leafs containing the Discourse on Universal History  framed by floral, zoomorphic, figural and armorial interlaced borders. This copy is further enhanced with elaborate decorated initials and tailpieces, and a black-and-white frontispiece opening each part.

Folio edition of the Holy Bible illustrated by Gustave Doré in two volumes.
3/4 red calf, spine with five raised bands showing some scuffing, decorated with five blind-stamped panels framed in gilt, gilt roll on the bands and at top and bottom of spine, spine-ends rubbed, spine elaborately decorated with gilt tooling, title and volume number gilt-stamped, marbled paper boards framed in gilt, small losses of paper at upper margin of front board of both volumes, paper lifting at margin of lower cover of volume two, contemporary binding. Some foxing. 
Translated by J.J. Bourassé and P. Janvier.
A handsome edition with numerous monumental woodcuts after drawings by Gustave...

First edition.

Our copy is preserved in its original plain pink paper waiting wrappers.

Ink annotations to the front cover, a few short tears; internally a clean and agreeable copy.

As it was never ratified, this concordat never came into effect, and France therefore remained under the regime of the Concordat of 1801 until the Law on the Separation of Church and State in 1905.

First edition printed on regular stock.

Small tears to the head and foot of the spine.

Fine presentation inscription, signed by Henri de Montherlant to Georges Bataille.

First edition.

Spine and boards slightly and marginally faded.

A rare and pleasing copy.

Rare first edition, illustrated with an engraved frontispiece (cf. Barbier II 802; Cioranescu 65461).

Contemporary full mottled brown calf, spine with five raised bands tooled with rubbed gilt fillets and decorated with gilt compartments containing floral tools, gilt roll-tooling to the head- and tailcaps, rubbing to the joints, mottled edges; contemporary binding.

The work is attributed to Claude Vanel, who served as counsellor at the Cour des Comptes in Montpellier.

Provenance: from the library of Jacques Charreton, a Lyon jurist contemporary with the publication; his armorial bookplate (Meyer-Noirel C 0949) appears on the pastedown.

Manuscript shelf-mark in...

First edition of the French translation prepared by J. de Rey-Pailhade and Henry-Joseph Sauvaire, issued in a small printing as an offprint from the Journal asiatique.

A few small spots of foxing; a pleasing and uncommon copy.

Half green cloth, smooth spine with red morocco title-label, ‘œil-de-chat’ patterned paper over boards, sprinkled edges.

Illustrated with two double-page plates outside the text.

Born in Marseille, Henri Sauvaire (1831–1896) began his career in the consular service before turning to Near-Eastern archaeology.

On the half-title, a presentation inscription in the hand of Henri-Joseph Sauvaire to the archaeologist...

Very rare devotional work, for which no bibliographical information could be traced.

Not recorded in Hage Chahine, Blackmer, or Atabey.

Full brown calf binding, spine with four raised bands gilt-ruled and richly gilt-panelled, brown calf lettering-piece, contemporary binding.

Some restorations to the spine and joints, spotting to the edges.

First edition illustrated with 8 lithographed plates printed outside the text and protected by tissue guards.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and ENC).

The sole edition, uncommon: in fact a miscellany assembled by Fanny Claudet (Madame Prosper Richomme), bringing together "orientalist" texts that had already become classics on this part of the Middle East (Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Poujoulat, Michaud, Francis Wey, etc.).

First edition, illustrated with a folding map at the end of the volume (see Fumagalli 730, and Gay, 2674bis (collation of the first two parts only: 292 pp.). 

The third part of this history of the "Ethiopia of the Ancients" is devoted to Christianity, the religion most widely practised in Abyssinia.

Occasional light foxing, chiefly affecting the folding map.

Half blue shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands gilt with dotted tooling and decorated with double gilt panels, slight rubbing to the spine, dark navy percaline boards framed with blind fillets, a small loss of percaline at the foot of the upper board, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled...

Rare Grenoble imprint.

Bound in full midnight-blue long-grain morocco, smooth spine decorated with gilt chain motifs and compartments finely tooled with a lattice of gilt fillets and small fleurons, gilt rolls to the headcaps, covers framed with a double gilt dentelle, marbled endpapers, gilt gauffered turn-ins and headcaps, gilt edges; an elegant contemporary binding.

Manuscript ex-dono on a flyleaf.

Second edition: the work had in fact already been published in 1741 at Halle under the more concise title Syriasmus.

Contemporary half vellum with vellum corners, the flat spine gilt ruled and decorated with gilt Greek-key rolls and floral tools, bronze sheep lettering-piece, a gilt cross stamped at the centre of the upper cover, sprinkled edges; corners a little rubbed. A binding of the period.

Numbering in blue ink at the head of the front endpaper.

The Lutheran theologian Christian Benedikt Michaelis (1680–1764) specialised in Oriental languages (Arabic, Geʽez, Syriac, etc.), as did many of his contemporaries during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A...

First edition, printed in a small number, of this scarce offprint from the Revue archéologique, illustrated with 11 figures in the text and 3 folding plates.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (Quai d'Orsay and Strasbourg).

The architect of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Christophe-Edouard Mauss (1829-1914), had been entrusted with several archaeological missions in the Levant (Salonica, Smyrna, Alexandria), before being appointed by the French government to Jerusalem (1862-1874) to restore the Church of Saint Anne.

He also developed a keen interest in ancient metrology, on which he published several monographs.

A pleasing copy.

Autograph...

Vezry rare first edition.

Jesuit library stamp to the half-title, a few minor spots of foxing, slight tears to the head and tail of the spine.

First edition of this rare imprint from the Vivarais.

A single copy recorded in the CCFr (Grenoble).

Contemporary half brown cloth binding, smooth spine without lettering with a small scuff, boards of vat-made paper; a modest 19th-century binding. 

Charles La Font de Savine (1742–1814), Bishop of Viviers and later of Ardèche (1778–1793), was one of only four bishops in office in 1789 to swear the constitutional oath. The "citoyen Savine" was subsequently required to surrender his pectoral cross and all episcopal insignia, together with his letters of priesthood, on 1 December 1793, and to resign his public office as bishop of the diocese of Ardèche; arrested as a suspect...

Rare first edition of this fervent—indeed visionary—appeal to bring the Orient under the sway of the combined powers of the State and the Christian religion, informed by such an overtly Eurocentric outlook that the work is almost unreadable today, yet remains an eloquent record of the illusions prevailing in the West in the mid-nineteenth century.

Corners restored at the outer tips of the boards, some scattered foxing, and a stain to the right margin of the upper cover.

In an admirably prophetic vein, the author exclaims: "La civilisation chrétienne, qui ne cesse d'agrandir son cercle, ne s'arrêtera pas devant le Coran, et ce n'est pas la loi de Mahomet qui présidera au...

First edition (see Cioranescu, XVIII, 13 365).

Contemporary full speckled fawn calf, spine with five raised bands, compartments decorated with gilt fleurons, faded gilt roll tooling to the headcaps, a scratch at the head of the spine, gilt fillets to the edges partially faded, corners rubbed, speckled edges; binding of the period.

The sole edition of the author’s only work, written by the prior of Saint-Didier-en-Bourbonnais [Saint-Didier-la-Forêt], about whom little else is known.

A very concise overview of the events of each ecumenical council, from Nicaea I onwards.

A later issue consisting of a reissue of the 1857–58 edition, with cancel titles (see Cordier, Sinica, 770; Caillet, 5294; Numa Broc, Asie, 247–249).

At the end of the volume, volume I is illustrated with a folding hand-coloured map inserted as a plate.

Some foxing, notably to the boards.

A native of Caylus, near Montauban, Évariste Huc (1813–1860) pursued his studies in Toulouse before entering the seminary of the Congregation of Saint Lazarus in 1836.

Ordained a priest in 1839, he left for China as a missionary.

After five years’ residence, he was entrusted with an extensive journey of exploration and evangelisation across the country...

Rare first edition, illustrated with a large folding plate containing a hand-coloured map.

Cf. Ferguson I, 814 ("Section 12 deals with Australia and New Zealand"). Not recorded by Sabin and by most other bibliographers.

Bradel case binding in paper-covered boards, beige wrappers, smooth spine with some rubbing, blind title to the spine, original plain wrappers preserved; modern binding.

Small marginal losses to the corners of the first few leaves, not affecting the text.

The plate outside the text offers a world map in which the Protestant areas are shown in pink, together with a detailed list of the various missionary societies by region or city.

First edition of the French translation (cf. Sabin 26375).

A defence of Catholic principles addressed to a Protestant minister (…) preceded by a notice on the author’s life and virtues. Translated from the English by Prince Augustin Galitzin. Paris, Ch. Douniol [printed by Simon Raçon et Comp.], 1856, 12mo.

Contemporary half navy blue shagreen, spine with four raised bands ruled and panelled in gilt, slight unobtrusive rubbing to the spine, marbled boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

Scattered foxing.

A work of religious controversy; the preface offers interesting information regarding Prince Galitzin’s activities in the United States.

Bound after it...

An uncommon first edition (cf. Palau, 92 173. Barbier, IV, 1072. Quérard, II, 40. Cioranescu, XVIII, 28675-28678.)

Contemporary full marbled fawn calf, smooth spine decorated with double gilt panels and ornaments, hazelnut calf lettering-piece, spine caps defective, covers framed with a single blind fillet, marbled endpapers, corners rubbed, gilt fillets to the edges, red edges; a fragile contemporary binding: spine ends trimmed, joints and upper hinge entirely split.

The imprint is fictitious: the pamphlet was not printed at Saint-Malo.

This satire, directed against the government, religion and customs of the Spaniards, and marked by singular bad faith (Fleuriot never...

First edition.

"Voulons & Nous plaist, qu'à commencer au premier Mars prochain, aucuns de nos Sujets de quelque estat, condition & sexe qu'ils soient, à l'Exception de ceux qui en auront obtenu nostre permission par Ecrit, ne puissent porter des Diamans, Perles et Pierres precieuses, à peine de confiscation & de Dix mille livres d'amende : Faisons deffenses sous la mesme peine, à compter du premier Avril prochain d'en faire entrer dans le Royaume ; N'entendons néantmoins comprendre dans la presente prohibition les Bagues Episcopales & les Pierreries employées aux Ornemens des Eglises".

First edition of this particularly engaging monograph, written by the Dutch pastor Gerard Croese (1642-1710), and translated into English as early as 1696 although never into French.

A few minor spots of foxing.

Full green vellum binding, spine faded and tooled with small gilt ornaments, the title-piece largely lost, speckled green edges, a contemporary binding.

Partly informed by letters and documents supplied by William Sewel (1653-1720, himself the author in 1717 of an excellent Histori van de Opkompste, Aanwas en Voortgang der Christenen bekend by den naam van Quakers), it offers an account of the movement at a particularly significant moment in its...

Very rare first edition of this Mauritian imprint of a charitable lecture delivered during the war in the island’s second city, by the Solesmes Benedictine Dom Paul Chauvin (1866–1937), preacher and prior of the Parisian Abbey of La Source.

Only one copy recorded in the CCF (Rennes).

Bradel-style binding in half brown glacé morocco, smooth spine, date and place gilt at foot, top edge gilt, sides in handmade paper, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved, contemporary binding.

At the head of the title page, an autograph inscription by Paul Chauvin to the Duke and Duchess of Bauffremont (the sixth duke, Pierre-Eugène de Bauffremont, 1843–1917...

Rare first edition.

Contemporary half fawn cloth Bradel binding, smooth spine, place and date gilt at foot, marbled paper boards, covers preserved.

A single copy recorded in the CCF (BnF).

The only edition, uncommon. A collection of notes and anecdotes relating to Abbé Castel’s period of study in Rome (born 1894, ordained 1920) during his seminary years.

Some spotting to the endpapers.

First edition, illustrated with three folding tables in the text.

Our copy is preserved sewn, as issued, in plain contemporary waiting wrappers of pink marbled paper.

The plain spine is browned and detached, with some losses.

New edition of the French translation known as the Port-Royal version, prepared by the theologian Louis-Isaac Le Maistre de Sacy.

The first edition of this “Nouveau Testament de Mons” had appeared in 1667.

This is the final edition printed by Daniel Elzevier.

Contemporary full black morocco, spine with five raised bands gilt with decorative rolls and richly gilt compartments, minor rubbing to spine and boards, covers framed with triple gilt fillets and gilt corner fleurons, red morocco doublures entirely covered with an elaborate gilt interlacing design and small dotted tools, comb-marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, corners slightly bumped, gilt rolls to the turn-ins...

First edition illustrated with 105 engravings, a heliogravure portrait frontispiece with tissue guard, as well as 2 folding maps at the end of the volume.

Publisher's bottle-green full cloth Bradel binding, smooth spine, upper cover decoratively blocked, bevelled boards, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, corners lightly rubbed.

A Geneva-born geographer, Alfred Bertrand (1856-1924) undertook numerous journeys for ethnographic purposes as well as missionary work; a fervent Calvinist, he sought not only the conversion of indigenous peoples but also a deeper understanding of their customs, and the destinations of his expeditions were largely determined by the...

Rare first edition, printed in small numbers, of this Extrait du Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, 2e série, tome XI, illustrated with two folding plates showing topographical cross-sections of various valleys, including that of the Jordan (cf. Hage Chahine, 471; Numa Broc, Asie, pp. 28–29).

Half tan calf, smooth spine gilt-ruled and tooled, some rubbing to the spine, one joint restored at the head, green morocco lettering-piece, marbled boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, red edges; a contemporary binding.

An orientalist and archaeologist, the Comte de Bertou explored Palestine in 1838 with the mission of verifying the hypothesis of an ancient outflow...

First edition of this pamphlet, directed in part against Mormonism (cf. Sabin 2797).

Illustrated with a folding lithographed map of the United States, inserted as a plate.

Spine cracked with small losses and tears at the joints; library shelf label pasted at the foot of the upper wrapper; small corner tears to the wrappers.

This booklet also considers the relations between Christians and the indigenous inhabitants, as well as with the African population brought to the United States through the cupidity of the citizens of the Old World. A good copy.

First edition.

Green sheepskin half binding, flat spine decorated with gilt garlands, marbled paper boards, speckled edges, contemporary binding.

A restoration at the head of the spine, a tear with loss to the first endpaper, library stamps (red stamps of the École Sainte-Geneviève on the title page, Jesuit stamp of Jersey "Dom. S. Aloys. Jerseiens S.J." on an endpaper, Bibliothèque jésuite des Fontaines stamp on the half-title.

The present copy was deaccessioned; another copy from the same provenance is held under the shelfmark SJ IG 266/100 in the collections of the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, which now houses the collections of the Bibliothèque des...

First french edition forming volumes 18 and 19 of the Voyages, relations et mémoires originaux pour servir à l'histoire de la découverte de l'Amérique, issued by H. Ternaux-Compans (cf. Sabin, 98793).

Some foxing, light dampstaining to the upper margins of most leaves of the first volume, marginal losses to the spine and boards.

A member of the Society of Jesus and a native of Quito, Don Juan de Velasco withdrew to Italy following the expulsion of his order.

It was there that, in 1789, he composed his Historia del Reino de Quito.

The work comprises three parts: natural history, civil history, and geography.

The present publication...

Second edition (cf. Quérard IX, 429.).

Our copy remains in the original stitching, in temporary wrappers showing numerous losses and a cracked backstrip; the margins of some leaves are browned and bear small chips.

The work deals exclusively with the canonical prohibition on clergy wearing wigs; one section is devoted to liturgical and extra-liturgical headgear: birettas, mitres, almuces, hoods, camails, amices, caps, and skullcaps.

Abbot Jean-Baptiste Thiers (1636–1703) was among the most original and learned theologians of the seventeenth century; throughout his life he opposed superstition and the misuse of religious practices.

Second edition, partly original as revised and enlarged, illustrated with a folding map at the end of the volume.

Slight corner wear to the boards, otherwise a well-preserved copy with internal foxing.

The author takes a very broad view of the Serbs, seemingly including all Slavic populations of the Balkans.

First edition, forming the sixteenth volume of Voyages, relations et mémoires originaux pour servir à l'histoire de la découverte de l'Amérique, published by H. Ternaux-Compans. Cf. Sabin, 94852.

Bound in half green sheepskin, spine with four raised bands, gilt date at the foot, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns of laid paper, upper corner with a minor tear; twentieth-century binding.

Foxing, one stain on the half-title page.

This volume contains: Letters from Don Juan de Zumárraga, elected Bishop of Mexico, to the King. — Documents relating to the disputes between the first Audiencia of New Spain, presided over by Nuño de Guzmán, and the Bishop...

First edition (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1282).

Contemporary flexible grey cloth, smooth unlettered spine slightly faded, blind-ruled borders to the boards, title lettered in gilt at the centre of both boards, a label bearing a handwritten inscription pasted to the upper left-hand corner of the front board, yellow paper pastedowns and endpapers, sprinkled edges.

George Thomas Staunton (1781–1859), an English diplomat and Orientalist, accompanied his father on a mission to China as early as 1792 and thus acquired a sound knowledge of the language at a very young age. In 1810, he published the Ta Tsing leu lee under the title Fundamental Laws of China. The...

First edition (cf. Cioranescu, XVII, 63 055. Blackmer 1543. Atabey 1135.)

Contemporary full tawny sheep, spine with four raised bands decorated in gilt, the ornaments nearly entirely rubbed away, rubbing to spine and covers, red-speckled edges, contemporary binding.

Lacking the title label, binding heavily rubbed.

Important work by the Hebraist Richard Simon (1638-1712), constituting one of the finest early histories of the Eastern Churches: Orthodox Greeks, Greek schismatics, Melkites, Georgians or Iberians, Christians of Colchis and Mingrelia, Nestorians, Indians or Christians of St. Thomas, Jacobites, Copts, Abyssinians or Ethiopians, Armenians, Maronites...

First edition (cf. Atabey 1128. Weber 59. Not in Blackmer.)

Half brown sheep binding with small green vellum corners, smooth spine decorated with gilt friezes and amphoras, red Russia morocco title label, hazel-coloured boards, ex-libris pasted to a pastedown; contemporary binding.

Spine restored, a few minor foxing spots.

"This is an important collection of letters written to the antiquary the Comte de Caylus, beginning as early as 1729 and including the period up to 1778. The collection includes the letters of the Abbé Sevin and others, including Anquetil Duperron and Le Roy, but it is especially significant for Peyssonnel's letters to Caylus. It was edited by...

Second edition.

Contemporary Bradel binding in green half percaline, smooth spine gilt with a central floral tool, place and date gilt at foot, cherry shagreen lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, one corner bumped, period binding.

Minor abrasions to the left margin of the upper cover, a few scattered foxing marks.

No copy of this edition recorded in the CCF.

Concerning the Franciscan monastery of Santa Maria de La Rabida, situated in the province of Huelva (Andalusia), whose renown derives in part from the assistance it provided to Christopher Columbus before his first voyage.

Braulio Santamaria (1838-1914) was director of the Correo de Huelva.

First edition of the French translation of the first part (Die Osmanen und die spanische Monarchie im XVI. und XVII. Jahrhundert) of the monumental work by the Prussian historian Leopold Ranke (1795-1886), professor at the University of Berlin: Fürsten und Völker von Süd-Europa im XVI. und XVII. Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1837.

Cf. Hage-Chahine 3920. Schefer 2617. Bourquelot VI 124.

Contemporary half havana calf, smooth spine ruled in gilt and black, a few rubs to the spine, a small chip at the headcap, marbled paper boards, paste-paper endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, contemporary binding.

Contemporary manuscript copy of the important unpublished memoir written in Tonkin in 1841 by the Spanish Dominican Domingo Martí (1811–1852), devoted to the lives and martyrdom of twenty-seven Servants of God who died between 1838 and 1840 during the anti-Christian persecutions carried out under the reign of Emperor Minh Mạng.

Small quarto (15 × 19.8 cm). 6 unnumbered leaves, 2 blank leaves, 117 numbered leaves with a few pagination errors...

First edition, illustrated with a large folding map (hors texte) at the end of the volume.

Half black morocco binding, spine with four raised bands decorated with gilt fillets and dotted tooling; light rubbing to the spine. Marbled paper boards, speckled edges, contemporary binding.

Scattered foxing.

Unique edition of this scarce monograph, among the earliest works in French on Albania, at the time still part of the European territories of the Ottoman Empire.

Hecquard (1814–1866) is better known for his travels in Africa, but he served as French consul in Albania from 1862 onward, which explains the writing of this work.

Signed presentation...

Second edition, embellished with several figures in the text and illustrated with 5 albumen photographic plates, mounted on heavy paper and inserted on guards.

Contemporary half black shagreen, spine with five raised bands decorated with blind fillets, headcap rubbed, joints worn, marbled paper boards, speckled edges, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

This was the first published work of Abbé Louis Duchesne (1843-1922), who would go on to revolutionize both the methodology and conclusions of ecclesiastical history.

Written in collaboration with the future Byzantinist Charles Bayet (1849-1918), it is the result of their stay at the French School at Athens.

This...

First edition, privately printed, of this offprint from the August 1811 issue of the Magasin encyclopédique.

Our copy is offered disbound, with a few minor foxing spots of no consequence.

Illustrated with one engraved plate hors texte, this pamphlet concerns a Byzantine boxwood triptych then preserved in the Library of Grenoble. 

Autograph presentation inscription from Jacques-Joseph Champollion-Figeac to the painter Pierre Revoil (1776-1842).

Rare first edition.

Only copy recorded in the CCFr (BnF).

Losses at the head and foot of the spine, small marginal tears to the covers and half-title, occasional foxing.

The author is presented as a serving Catholic statesman wishing to remain anonymous. With an introduction by the publicist Armand Ravelet (1834-1875).

Despite its very broad title, the pamphlet chiefly concerns the highly contentious relations between Gregorian Armenians and Catholic Armenians, as well as the respective positions of the Porte and the Papacy regarding these two communities.

Album comprising 30 original albumen prints mounted on heavy card leaves.

Bradel binding in full black boards, smooth unlettered spine, gilt-ruled frame on the covers, title set within a central panel on the upper cover, corners rubbed; contemporary binding except for the renewed spine.

The first 22 photographs (approx. 12.5 × 17 cm) depict views of the City of the Doges; the following seven (various formats) reproduce paintings by Italian masters (Veronese, Titian, Raphael, Murillo...) held in Venice, Florence, and Paris; the final print shows a water-carrier.

Captions in Italian in black ink on the mount, on the verso.

The sequence of photographs is as follows...

Second edition, embellished with a copper-engraved map by Giraud l’aîné, folded, together with a copper-engraved plan of the labyrinth of Knossos by Chapuy.

This edition is not recorded by Contominas, Atabey or Blackmer (1493 for the first edition).

Contemporary half mottled sheep with parchment corners, smooth spine decorated with delicate black fillets, paper labels serving as title pieces, green paper boards with some rubbing, sprinkled edges.

Spine foot restored.

Three gatherings very lightly toned, otherwise a clean, fresh copy.

Bound at the end is the first edition of the French translation prepared by Jean-Claude Pingeron of Dominique Sestini’s work...

First edition illustrated with three folding maps out of text.

"This work is one of the best contemporary accounts of the Greek War of Independence". Atabey 1014.

Minor losses to the corners of the spines and boards, uniformly browned boards, a few small spots of foxing.

Maxime Raybaud (1795–1894) was a senior officer in the Corps of Philhellenes and aide-de-camp to the President of the Executive Power of the Greek government.

He assisted the insurgents between 1821 and 1823, and again in 1825 and 1826.

Rare first edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with two folding plates.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Strasbourg). Backer & Sommervogel III, 1242 (59).

Our copy is preserved in its original provisional yellow paper wrappers,

With a few minor spots of foxing on the folding plates.

The Neapolitan Jesuit Raffaele Garrucci (1811–1885) devoted his work to the study of the Church Fathers as well as to both pagan and Christian antiquities.

He became one of the foremost disciples of Father Giuseppe Marchi, alongside the renowned Giovanni Battista de Rossi.

First edition, one of 100 copies numbered on pur fil du Marais, the deluxe issue.
A handsome copy, despite a few insignificant foxing spots at the head of the upper cover.

In 1955, the book was splendidly adapted for the screen by Jean Delannoy, starring Jean Gabin, Robert Dalban, Serge Lecointe, Anne Doat and Jimmy Urbain.

Original autograph signed and dated manuscript by Paul Claudel, for his preface to Jacques Rivière's 'A la trace de Dieu'. Seventeen and a half pages in black ink on five double leaves.
A few words crossed out and rewritten. Horizontal fold, some foxing to the first page, pencil notes by a bibliographer on the last blank page. The preface, dated June 1925, first appeared in Le Correspondant on September 25, 1925, then with Rivière's Carnets published the same year by his wife under the title 'A la trace de Dieu' (Gallimard, pp. 9-24).



Complete manuscript of Paul Claudel's moving preface to the notebooks kept by Jacques Rivière during his captivity in WW1. The writer pays...