{"title":"Religion","description":"\u003cp\u003eExploring faith, theology, and world religions.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"bible","title":"BIBLE","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare edition of this book of Psalms beautifully bound in a London  sombre  binding of finely worked blind tooling on black morocco. This binding is very similar in style to a binding by the  Sombre binder  illustrated in the Henry Davis gift Catalogue (vol II, 116) and shares the same tools as another  Sombre  binding in the online British library catalogue of bindings, BL Shelfmark c72e7, an Eikon Basilike printed in London in 1649. These bindings were most often made in Puritan London where ostentation was frowned upon though a dislike of display did not deter people from wanting to own sumptuous bindings on books that they would use in public. The richness of the binding was effectively disguised with this  black on black  work. It is also thought that Restoration period,  sombre  bindings, using only blind stamps, were produced for periods of mourning at Court; with the great plague of 1665 and the fire of London a year later many were mourning in London. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The design, tooling, work and materials on this copy are of the highest quality. The style of the binding heavily influenced the arts and crafts movement and the tooling on this binding is reminiscent of the work of Cobbden Sanderson at the Doves Press bindery at the end of the C19.  Another fashion which first begins to be notable around 1670, and which remained in Vogue well into the first half of the eighteenth century, was a taste for  Sombre  bindings, typically found on bibles, prayer books and other devotional texts.  Pearson English Bookbinding Styles, 1450-1800. A rare book of Psalms; containing the prose text of psalms and canticles without commentary and includes the  Canticum D. Ambrosii et Augustini  at the end. The engraved title page, with a portrait of King David, is altered from a plate occasionally used as a frontispiece to the Sternhold and Hopkins psalms where it has 4 lines of text below the portrait. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Psalter was published to the order and probably at the cost of the chapel of Peterhouse, where Cosin, Master of the College, was engaged in the reformation of worship in the newly built chapel; Young was also his publisher. Dispersals of chapel furnishings were made in the 1650s, presumably as a result of religious changes following the Civil War. A number of copies bear similar annotations. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Our thanks to Scott Mandelbrote, Fellow of Peterhouse for providing this information.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BIBLE","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816066228559,"sku":"L1118","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Psalter-1.jpg?v=1781795330"},{"product_id":"catholic-church-curia","title":"CATHOLIC CHURCH, CURIA","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn exceptional ms. copy of the papal bulls and statutes setting out the duties powers and privileges of the Apostolic Protonotaries of the Roman Church from the 1560 s until the early C19th. This was the, or an official copy used either by the Protonotarial office or by one of their number, perhaps the figure depicted in the gilt oval on the upper cover. The papal Bulls forming and reforming the office from Callistus to Adrian VI occupy the first 21 pages, the relevant statutes pp. 23-43 and further Bulls of Urban VIII and Alexander VII from pp 43-59. Pp. 60-64 comprise the agreement of the protonotaries drafted 21st September 1661 concerning the division of their emoluments, signed by each of them and formally attested by the Curial pro-secretary Giovani Manfroni and the final pages the reforms of Gregory XVI. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Protonotaries Apostolic were members of the highest college of prelates of the Roman Curia, deriving their office from the seven regional notaries of Rome in late antiquity, and the senior lawyer-administrators of the C16 Catholic church charged with the issue of Papal Bulls and other legislative or quasi legislative Papal documents. On the further development of Papal administration , secular and religious, they remained the supreme palace notaries of the Papal Chancery and in the middle ages were very high ranking officials. Sixtus V increased their number to 12, though  honories  were also appointed, Gregory XVI re-established the college of real protonotaries with seven members in 1838. The pronotarial office is of particular interest as at the same time the precursor of the modern state bureaucracy and a functional link with the ancient world. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This remarkably beautiful almost  treasure  binding is an extremely scarce survivor of a binding style typical of de luxe presentation copies from the mid C15 to mid C17 centuries . Unfortunately plush velvet is not a durable material and gilt ornaments tended to part company with their binding at the first opportunity. It is of the utmost rarity to find one on the market intact with all its ornaments in place. The eight cornerpieces (approximately 4 x 41\/2  including frame) recount sequentially the events of the Passion from the Garden of Gethsemane to Burial in the Tomb. The representations are life like, the action vivid and the relief and general condition is excellent. They were probably made for and are certainly contemporary with the binding. They are almost certainly Roman (cf Rossi Placchette 65 -151 and may derive from the frescos of Sebastiano del Piombo in the church of San Pietro in Montorio in Rome, at least one of which according to Vasari is according to designs given him by Michelangelo. The four clasps are likely to form part of the same set. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The two central ornaments are somewhat lighter in style and of sharper execution on finer metal, the work of a gem carver or expert goldsmith. The designer was clearly influenced by Renaissance Mannerism but the approach of the baroque is sensible. The upper cover figure may well be modelled on a monumental sculpture of the period whilst the lower suggests a copy of a sculptural stemma, perhaps from the wall of the Protonotarial office itself. The feeling for the monumental and architectural combined with a fineness of detail points towards the body of work generally attributed to Guglielmo de la Porta 1490-1577. There is stylistic similarity too betwenn the cornerpieces and certain of De la Porta s known work eg. the silver plaque of the flagellation now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Interestingly De La Porta also worked under the influence of Michelangelo and his workshop specialised in the manufacture of bronzes of contemporary art.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CATHOLIC CHURCH, CURIA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816066556239,"sku":"L1159","price":49500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8222.jpg?v=1781795329"},{"product_id":"frois-luis","title":"FROIS, Luis","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of these two important and detailed letters by Frois, the first concerning the state of the Christian leaders and Jesuit missions in Japan in 1595 and the second dealing with the death of Hidetsugu the nephew and retainer of Hideyoshi (referred to in this letter by his common name Taicosama). The Portuguese Jesuit Frois was one of the leading members of the Jesuit mission in Japan and his reports are highly esteemed for their attention to detail and concrete data. By the 1590 s the predominately Jesuit Christian mission in Japan had made considerable progress, with nearly three hundred thousand converts. Frois worked for some years under the Provincial of India in charge of reporting on East Asia to the church in Europe, and in 1563, at the age 31, he arrived in Japan, at Nagasaki. In 1565 he journeyed to Kyoto, but with the downfall of his protector, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, he was forced to take refuge in Sakai. In 1569 he met Nobunaga, (the first of the great Japanese Generals who nearly unified Japan under his leadership) and received permission to proselytize. He spent the ensuing years in missionary work while writing The History of Portuguese Territories in East India. In his capacity as interpreter he travelled widely in Japan, was party to much inside information on affairs of State and witnessed many of the events that shaped Japan for some 250 years. The first letter is a general review of the year recounting events of especial importance with respect to the Society, dealing with particular places and Jesuit residences, providing detailed accounts of their political, social and religious circumstances. The second work is an extraordinary account of the death of Hidetsugu who was nominally the regent of Japan or Kanpaku, though all power effectively resided with his uncle Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi had made Hidetsugu, his only relative, his heir, though with the birth of Hideyoshi s son in 1593 to his mistress, this situation became untenable. Finally, in 1595, Hidetsugu was accused of plotting a coup and ordered to commit suicide, his allies were banished and his children and mistresses executed, with the exception of his one month old daughter. Frois  account is particularly detailed and knowledgeable giving much detail on the complex political background to the events and paints a picture of Hideyoshi as a cruel and vindictive leader. A good copy of these important letters from a most important period in Japanese history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FROIS, Luis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816067014991,"sku":"L1081","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_1971.jpg?v=1781795329"},{"product_id":"gaffarel-jacques","title":"GAFFAREL, Jacques","description":"\u003cp\u003eA rare clandestine edition of an important and influential work on Oriental Talismans, Hebrew, Egyptian and Arabic Astrology, the Cabala and Star-writing, (the theory that the starts are arranged in the form of Hebrew letters, which can be read by those with the specific knowledge), with two beautiful folding celestial charts depicting the theory the constellations could be read as a book. Gaffarel was a follower of Pico de Mirandola and one of the chief exponents of Christain Kabbalism, and as such came into conflict with the Sorbonne and particularly with Mersenne who unambiguously rejected his work as impious and published  De Gaffarello Judicio  attacking him, though he recognized Gaffarel s profound knowledge of Kabbalah.  Jaques Gaffarel,.... was born in Provence in 1601, educated at the Universities of Valence and Paris where he received the degree of Doctor of canon law, became a priest and chaplain of Richelieu, and had a wide knowledge of Oriental languages - Hebrew, Arabic, Syrian and Persian. ... (This) is Gaffarels main work, the first appearance was in Paris 1629 and then it was repeatedly reprinted into the early 18th century and translated into Latin and English. It divides into three parts, of which the first defends orientals, especially Hebrews, from Christian charges, and the third deals with ancient Hebrew and oriental astrology. The second part, on the talismanic sculpture of the Persians, especially interests us for its close connection with natural magic..... He further contends that the astrology of the ancients was neither idolatry nor the cause of of idolatry, and accuses Scaliger and others of having misrepresented the astrology of the ancient Hebrews, Egyptians and Arabs. On August 1, 1629, the faculty of theology at Paris condemned Gaffarel's book as \"entirely to be disapproved\", and called its doctrine false, erroneous, scandalous, opposed to Holy Writ, contumelious towards the Church Fathers, and superstitious besides.  Thorndike. Gaffarel duly signed a retraction, but couched it in vague and general terms, stating that he was merely recording the opinions collected from the writings of the Arabs and Hebrews. The book enjoyed great success, Descartes and Sir Thomas Browne read it with interest and Pierre Gassendi defended it. Richelieu made Gaffarel his librarian and he travelled extensively, first to Italy, where he met Campanella, then to Greece and Asia in search of rare books. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A most appropriate provenance: Carl Aurivillius was professor of oriental languages at Uppsala, Swedish linguist, translator and orientalist [b. 1717, d.1786]. He wrote several dissertations of profound scholarship on subjects connected with biblical and Oriental literature, of which thirty were published by J. D. Michaelis. Aurivillius studied at Uppsala, then at Paris, Leiden and Halle, where he became friends with great contemporary Orientalists, such as Michaelis, Fourmont and Albert Schulten. He was part of Gustav III's Biblical Commission, and helped translate almost the entire Old Testament into Swedish. A very good, unsophisticated copy of this work, with the two folding plates in excellent condition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GAFFAREL, Jacques","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816067047759,"sku":"L1321","price":2950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_3451.jpg?v=1781795328"},{"product_id":"godwin-francis","title":"GODWIN, Francis","description":"A handsome copy of the FIRST EDITION of these detailed collected biographies of the English bishops and a valuable source book of English history. It is the best known work of Francis Godwin (1562-1633), which so pleased Queen Elizabeth that she made Godwin bishop of Llandaff with immediate effect. The text is important as an Anglican attempt to establish a continuous history of an independent English church from the first arrival of Christianity to the end of the 16th C. Although partisan in purpose it is reasonably even-handed in its treatment of its subjects and is significant in the development of English historical scholarship; it is also eminently readable. Diocese by diocese, a broad survey of the incumbents of the ancient bishoprics and archbishoprics is conducted, covering Canterbury, London, Winchester, Ely, Lincoln, Coventry \u0026amp; Lichfield, Salisbury, Bath \u0026amp; Wells, Exeter, Norwich, Worcester, Hereford, Chichester, Rochester, Oxford, Gloucester, Peterborough, St. Davids, Llandaff, York, Durham, Carlisle and Chester. Proceeding chronologically, where possible the history of appointments are given, along with any highlights of episcopal incumbency and accounts of particular bishops - e.g. of St Cuthbert of Durham: \"He was a very personable man, well-spoken, and so mighty in perswading, as none that ever he delt withall was able to withstand the force of his words,\" - with a few final words about the length of his office and eventual death. In instances where nothing but a name survives, it is duly noted. The work comprises a very valuable history of the sees and bishops of England throughout the middle ages, though prudently 16th C figures are dealt with much more briefly than earlier appointments. Fisher's career is noted in five laconic lines and Rioleg's in only two. Each section concludes with the value of the See, first in the books of the Crown and second of the Papacy.","brand":"GODWIN, Francis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816067178831,"sku":"L705","price":2850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0238.jpg?v=1781795327"},{"product_id":"five-historiated-initials","title":"FIVE HISTORIATED INITIALS","description":"\u003cp\u003e(Framed all together; on the reverses remains of text and 4-line red staves; slight rubbing in a couple of places, else in very good condition). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n FINE INITIALS FROM A LAVISHLY ILLUSTRATED GRADUAL OF THE BEGINNING OF THE 16TH CENTURY: AN EXCEPTIONALLY RICH PROJECT OF DECORATION. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n According to the textual and musical fragments on the reverse of a couple of our cuttings, the five capitals come from a Gradual. Indeed, the K probably opened the Kyrie eleison (since there are remains of the Gloria on the reverse of the letter); the Q marked the Communion for Corpus Christi. The iconography also contributes to the identification. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The sophisticate acanthus staves are typical of early sixteenth century German initials in both illuminated and printed books. The illuminator of our initials, however, was aware of the rules and the power of the Renaissance painting, known in Germany through the masterpieces of Dürer, Cranach and Altdorfer. The atmospheric landscapes characterised by distant silver-blue shapes of mountains, the effect of the movement in the water, the smooth brush, the attention paid to details such as the subtle termination of the stave curled around Christ's tiny foot or the costumes in the Communion scene (the woman's one indicating a date around 1520) make this artist and accomplished painter of the early Renaissance. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Gradual from which our initials came seems to have been lavishly adorned with historiated initials, not just for the introits. This rich project was exceptional and certainly reserved for very important books.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FIVE HISTORIATED INITIALS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816078614863,"sku":"L832","price":7750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_7967_5bcc7b0b-4741-46b1-bb5f-9cb9a047b554.jpg?v=1781795321"},{"product_id":"resurrection","title":"RESURRECTION","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis initial might have introduced the Easter antiphon \"Et respicientes\", as the representation of the Resurrection suggests. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The strength and beauty of this work is due to its fresh simplicity. The style, essential and genuine, with its palette of colour is evocative of 14th century illumination from the central regions of Italy, perhaps Tuscany.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RESURRECTION","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816088445263,"sku":"L840","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-11_ad2b4be0-e311-4e23-bbd4-7cd21dffb419.jpg?v=1781795317"},{"product_id":"acosta-emanuel-with-maffei-giovan-pietro","title":"ACOSTA, Emanuel [with] MAFFEI, Giovan Pietro","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of the first attempt to write a detailed history of the Jesuit missions in the East, especially in Japan, and one of the most important and diverse compilations of letters relating to the Jesuit mission in the Far East; prefaced by Acosta's important \"Commentarius\", the work includes some 39 letters dating from between 1548-1564, most of which relate to Japan. As early in the 1550 s influential Jesuits argued for an official synthesis of letters from the missions, motivated in part by the fear that someone else would do it for them, and in part to promote their enormous successes in the east. The text is based on a manuscript  Historia dos missiones do Oriente at é o anno de 1568  written by the Portuguese, Manuel da Costa. Da Costa, a Jesuit missionary and bibliographer who taught at Coimbra where most Jesuit letters were available in uncensored form. His manuscript was sent to Rome, translated into Latin, and was given to the young novice Giovanni Pietro Maffei (1533-1603) to prepare for publication. Maffei added the  De Japonicis rebus epistolarum  containing abridged Latin translations of letters sent from the Jesuits working in Japan until the year 1564. In his introduction Maffei congratulates Da Costa on his effort in summarizing the contents of the letters together in the commentary. Maffei was later to write the hugely successful  Historiarum Indicarum libri XVI , much praised for its excellent treatment of Japan. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The letters begin with the Japanese convert Paul's letter from Goa written in December 1548, followed by two famous letters of St. Francis Xavier published here for the first time. The first of these is written from Malacca in June 1549, the second on his arrival in Japan dated Kagoshima, November 1549. Letters by Frois (1532-1597), Vilela (1525-1572), and Almeida (1525-1583) are of particular interest in that they give much detail of Japanese religion, culture, and customs. This work was reprinted and translated many times, and made a significant contribution to early European perceptions of the east. A very good copy of the rare first edition of this seminal work that paints one of the earliest detailed pictures of Japan, from the Jesuit college in Mainz now the Johannes Gutenberg University.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ACOSTA, Emanuel [with] MAFFEI, Giovan Pietro","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816110563663,"sku":"L1082","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Acosta-L1082-4.jpg?v=1781795309"},{"product_id":"missal","title":"MISSAL","description":"\u003cp\u003eA rare, elegantly decorated and sumptuously bound altar missal in the Tridentine rite, produced and embellished with no expense spared, 'Ad maiorem Dei gloria'. Crimson or purple velvet bindings were often used on presentation copies for princes of the state or church, all the more so when elaborate silver decoration was added. In the present case the arms demonstrate that the owner was the child of the union of two European families of the high nobility, but unfortunately we have been unable to discover more. The armorial bearings (fleur de lys, lions passant, etc) are pretty standard though the orb above the latter is less usual but not indicative. The silver work, which is early baroque, is quite monumental and very richly carved, like an early Grinling Gibbons. The workmanship is not easy to place but there appears to be a mixture of French and German influences which suggests the Netherlands (a centre of book silverwork) or the borderlands of Eastern France and Western Germany, though we doubt the workmanship French. The whole was most likely bound for the family chapel of the Castle of the noble whose arms it bears. The ms addition of the mass of St Anne may be a clue to at least the Christian name of that individual. \u003cbr\u003e\n Gaultier's dramatic engravings are here in very striking clear impression, contrasting with the delicate watercolouring of the historiated initials. A beautiful and historic artefact.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MISSAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816116887887,"sku":"L1645","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/2014-03-04-16.49.48.jpg?v=1781795306"},{"product_id":"partlicius-simeon-von-spitzberg","title":"PARTLICIUS Simeon, von Spitzberg","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn extremely rare prognostication based on Scripture various Christian authors, probably in its first edition. There were two issues in that year and no precedence has been ascribed, if indeed there is one. Astronomer and physician Simeon Partlitz or Partlicius (1588-1640) was an exile from Bohemia and a millenarist influenced by the Calvinist theology of Alsted and by Rosicrucianism. His prognostication is divided into three sections where he collects excerpts first from the Old and New Testament, then from the works of Martin Luther and other Lutheran theologians, and finally from earlier Christian scholars. All portend violent renewal for the world and for Germany, and an unpleasant reversal for Rome. He then attaches a 'Confutation' which expresses his anger that various astronomical and astrological works had been published under his name, without his knowledge, consent, or, implicitly, any chance of his being paid for them. He counsels against avarice, states that God will punish these wrong-doers, and notes that he doesn't even have the time to write anything of that sort, busy as he is with his medical practice. The final four pages of the pamphlet comprise a poem in German criticising the immorality of the rich and emphasising the futility of all wealth gathering, unless accompanied by moral repentance. VD 17 lists only four entries for printing in Alkmaar, Northern Holland, all of the present title, two in 1635, and two in 1637. One of the entries queries whether the imprint is fictitious. The paper is in fact typically German of the period.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PARTLICIUS Simeon, von Spitzberg","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816118493519,"sku":"L1283a","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0013.jpg?v=1781795302"},{"product_id":"campanus-johannes-antonius","title":"CAMPANUS, Johannes Antonius","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition of the collected works of Johannes Antonius Campanus (Giovanni Antonio Campano; c. 1429-1477). Campanus, churchman, humanist and orator, led a varied career which took him to appointments in Naples and Perugia (as a teacher of rhetoric), before his election as Bishop of Crotone in 1463. From 1472-74 he was Papal Governor of Todi. A prominent figure of the day, Campanus was the subject of a Latin epitaph by Poliziano. The present edition reproduces the introduction by Michael Fernus from the first, Roman edition of 1495.  The essays in the present volume demonstrate Campanus' rhetorical and theological expertise to the full, and are comprehensively indexed. They include orations on the Holy Spirit and St. Stephan; we are not told the occasions on which these were delivered - if, indeed, they were anything more than exercises in composition. Other instructive essays include 'De dignitate martrimonii' and 'Contra Turchos ad principes germanos'; biographies of Thomas Aquinas, Pope Pius and Archbishop John of Benevento also appear. The present volume is, however, dominated by a lengthier biographic work, Campanus' six book life of the famous condottiere Andrea Braccio Fortebracci, conte di Montone (1368-1424), who was fatally wounded by his fellow soldier of fortune Francesco Sforza near L'Aquila, northeast of Rome. The work concludes with eight book of Latin epigrams, on religious and secular subjects.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CAMPANUS, Johannes Antonius","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816119017807,"sku":"L649","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_00161.jpg?v=1781795300"},{"product_id":"papa-guido","title":"PAPA, Guido","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of a rare and early collection of the statutes of the Dauphinate compiled by Guidon de la Pape. The work opens with a detailed table of contents to the first part, followed by a section on Royal ordinances, prescripts, articles and replies to petions and requests, particularly those made at the assembly of the Estates held at Tours in 1483. At the end is a two-leaf letter of Louis XIII (often missing) on the addition of the Comte d'Asti to the jurisdiction of the parliament of Grenoble. The text alternates between French and Latin throughout but in the second half French predominates. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n La Pape was a distinguished jurist who died in 1475. He practised as an advocate in Lyon and then Grenoble before being appointed by the Dauphin Louis to take care of his important business in the Dauphinate. Ultimately appointed to the parlement of Grenoble he retired from public life to compose his various legal treatises which acquired a well deserved reputation. This seems to be the rarest of his works. Initially this printing was ascribed to Barth élemy Bertolet and Francois Pichat, booksellers at Grenoble (Voy, Brunet and BM. STC. Fr.) and there is no doubt it was printed for them, as stated on the title page; doubtless, in the modern sense, they published it. However both Maignien in his bibliography of Grenoble presses and Mueller in the Bibl. Aureliana give the printer as Jean Belon - a more probable hypothesis as he was an established printer by 1508 whilst this volume would have constituted Bertholet and Pichard's entire output. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy is from the collection of Paul Arbaud, bibliophile and founder of the Mus ée Arbaud in Aix-en-Provence.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PAPA, Guido","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816119214415,"sku":"L531","price":4250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_00432.jpg?v=1781795299"},{"product_id":"neri-st-philip","title":"NERI, St. Philip","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare second edition of the regulations of the Congregation of the Oratory founded in Rome by St. Philip Neri at the church of S. Maria in Vallicella, 1575, an exact copy of the first edition printed in 1630. The rule, not officially constituted till 17 years after Saint Philip's death, was approved by Pope Paul V in 1612.  St Philip Neri was a holy man, charismatic by nature, who wished to return to the spirit of the early church and to concentrate his life on developing a community which prayed together, preached the gospel, and looked after the sick and needy. He found himself surrounded by a group of disciples who wished to live with him in community.  He felt that vows might hold men against their wishes, and he wanted his community to be united only by love. Certain rules were made, simply for the efficient day to day running of the house and to help his fellow priests and lay brothers to live in charity. He was a practical man and realised that men who live together also need a degree of privacy. An Oratorian's room or \"nest\", as St Philip called it, was the centre of his temporal and spiritual life.    The rules or the Constitutions of the Oratory are - still today- something of a curiosity in the Church, so much so that the Roman Curia has found it difficult to put the Oratory of St. Philip Neri into any of its usual categories. The Oratorians are undoubtedly secular priests, in that they have no vows, yet formerly they came under the direction of the Congregation for Religious, like the religious orders... When we study how the Constitutions developed, we can detect once again the character of Philip and his early and later disciples. The Rule was, so to speak, written from life. The life of the community - its usages and traditions - this is what is important. The first draft of the Constitutions already said so explicitly:  The Congregation of the Oratory is guided more by customs than bound with laws . Nevertheless one notes that whenever an essential point of the Rule - autonomy or freedom from vows - were threatened, interest in the rule revived and the special characteristics of the Oratory were defended. .. The formulation of the Rule turned out to be far from simple. After all, the Congregation was a totally new kind of community in the Church. .. In the end the task was not completed until 1612. . Paul Türks,  Philip Neri: The Fire Of Joy . Uncommon outside Italian libraries.   The first Oratory in England was founded at Birmingham by Cardinal Newman in 1848. There are now Oratories throughout Europe and in North and South America and Africa, with the Congregation very well respected in the English speaking world. They have a very strong liturgical and musical tradition -indeed the  oratorio  originated with them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NERI, St. Philip","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816120066383,"sku":"L1590","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0074.jpg?v=1781795297"},{"product_id":"middleton-richard-of","title":"MIDDLETON, Richard of","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare edition by Benzonus of Middleton's commentary on the fourth book of Peter Lombard's great 'Sentences,' accompanied by 'Quodlibeta,' related disputations. It was one of very few works by an Englishman of sufficient reputation to be internationally printed in the incunable and post-incunable periods. The fourth book covers 'the sacraments in general, the seven sacraments in particular, and the four last things, death, judgement, hell, and heaven.' (Catholic Encyclopaedia). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Quodlibeta were answers to scholarly questions posed by pupils or by interested parties. They address many and varied topics, religious and scientific, including one of the earliest discussions of hypnotism, auto-suggestion and telepathy. The possibility of resurrection, the nature of the human intellect, whether Peter sinned when he denied Christ, the meaning of 'good luck', if one has sinned having done something through direst necessity, and the morality of the marriage of two persons of wildly differing years i.a. are discussed. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The standard theological textbook of the medieval university, the Sentences ia a compilation of extracts from the Bible, religious Fathers (especially Augustine), and other sources of authority, and covers the whole body of theological doctrine to form the basis for virtually the entire field of Christian theology and its scholastic interpretation. It represented the first effort to bring together commentaries on the full range of theological issues on a systematic basis, and present different views on complex theological points. A commentary on the Sentences was required of every aspiring master of theology, making it the predominant non-Biblical work most commented on up to the 16th C and Middleton's was regarded as a leader in the field. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Richard of Middleton (c. 1249 - 1302) was a Franciscan friar, theologian and philosopher. His works pioneer the move away from a strict Augustinian theology to a more scholastic one. Known as 'doctor solidus et fundatissimus,' he was a friend of Duns Scotus, who also composed a commentary on the Sentences. Perhaps the most famous argument Middleton advances in this commentary (first published in 1489) is his fierce opposition to the ordination of women. As well as the more conventional objections to the weak and emotional character and submissive nature of women rendering them wholly unfit for office, he also advances the compelling argument that women cannot be ordained, as the tonsure which is required for minor orders would not be suitably becoming to females. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This edition, published as part of a 4 volume series between 1507 and 1509, is significantly expanded from the Gregorii editions of 1489 and 1499, and is the most complete Mediavilla commentary on the final, and arguably most theologically significant, section of the Sentences.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MIDDLETON, Richard of","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816120131919,"sku":"L884","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L884-2.jpg?v=1781795296"},{"product_id":"lyndwood-william-bishop-of-st-davids-with-acton-john","title":"LYNDWOOD, William, Bishop of St. David's [with] ACTON, John","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"The 'Provinciale' is a digest in five books of the synodal constitutions of the province of Canterbury from the time of Stephen Langton to that of Henry Chichele, accompanied by an explanatory gloss in unusually good Latin, and is the principal authority for English canon law\" (DNB). Lyndwood's work collects the most important ecclesiastical legislation from the province of Canterbury between 1222 up to the time of its writing. It is also supplied with Lyndwood's extensive marginal gloss and an authoritative index. It was completed in 1433, and was first published in Oxford c. 1470-80; it was also printed at Westminster in 1496 with Caxton's cipher and de Worde's colophon. That edition marked the first appearance of John Acton's commentary on the ecclesiastical 'constitutions' of Otho and Ottobone, the papal legates in England in the 14th century, followed by a collection of unabridged provincial statutes of Canterbury; the second work here, which is frequently (and erroneously) attributed to Lyndwood. It is the first major treatise on English Canon Law. These works were often bound together, and were both edited by Jodocus Badius Ascensius, the printer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LYNDWOOD, William, Bishop of St. David's [with] ACTON, John","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816120492367,"sku":"L614","price":4850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_00801.jpg?v=1781795294"},{"product_id":"jesuit-letters","title":"JESUIT LETTERS","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition of this rare, early valuable collection of nine letters from the Jesuit missions in Asia written by Diaz, Froes and others between the years 1556 and 1559 and dedicated by the printer-publisher to Vittoria Farnese dalla Rovere, Duchess of Urbino. The letters include some of the earliest first-hand accounts of China and Japan to reach Western Europe. The first provides a description of Ceylon, the Moluccas and the East Indies, the third tells of events in Goa and Indo-China, the fourth deals with the Moslems, the fifth with Malabar and Cochin, the sixth with China and Japan and the seventh with Travancore. The second and last two comprise only brief extracts of longer works. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In almost every case the first reliable accounts of the Far East which reached Europe were letters from the Jesuit missionaries full of first hand information: social, cultural, political, ethnographic, commercial, geographical, economic and religious. It was the detail and apparent accuracy of their scholarly yet practical reports which prompted merchants, seamen and governments to follow them in opening up to European interests the farthest corners of the known world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"JESUIT LETTERS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816123474255,"sku":"SN1166","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-11.20.56.png?v=1781795285"},{"product_id":"andrewes-lancelot","title":"ANDREWES, Lancelot","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition, first issue with the errata, of Lancelot Andrews  important refutation of Cardinal Bellarmine s response to the Oath of Allegiance. Andrewes (1555-1626) was one of the leading figures of the Anglican Church, a skilled controversialist, deeply scholarly, and proficient in fifteen languages. Sometime Master of Pembroke, Cambridge, Fellow of St John's, Oxford, and Bishop of Winchester, he narrowly missed being Archbishop of Canterbury. A Privy Councillor, his name appears first in the list of divines appointed to produce the King James Bible, and Fuller says of him that \"the world wanted learning to know how learned this man was\". He was elegised by Milton and frequently consulted by Bacon. He was anti-Papist, and carefully defended the interests of the Church of England. In 1606, after the Gunpowder Plot, Parliament instituted a new Oath of Allegiance, targeted at Catholics. Cardinal Bellarmine issued an attack on the institution of this Oath, prompting an anonymous Royal defence ('Triplici nodo, triplex cuneus') published the following year. Bellarmine replied at the Pope's behest in 1608, under the name of his chaplain, Matteo Torti; prompting James I to commission Andrewes to compose a full reply to supplement the King's 'Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance .  James s desire not to see his sovereignty diminished led him to pursue and even intensify Henry VIII s policy regarding the requirement of loyalty to the crown, and in terms of Ecclesiological consequences, made it all the more urgent to reconsider the notion of the Church. The papacy on the other hand was keen to defend the Roman Catholic tradition, based on the primacy of the Pope s jurisdiction and indirect temporal power. To highlight the king of England s interference in the lives of English Catholics, Bellarmine evoked the creation of harsher penal laws related to the oath (of Allegiance), which betrayed a discriminatory , intolerant attitude. .. At this stage other authors, including Robert Parsons and his adversary William Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln and one of the King s Chaplains, joined the war of words. On the Anglican side, James called on the best known and unquestionably the best read of the pamphleteers, Lancelot Andrewes, to pen a refutation of Bellarmine s work. In 1609, Andrews published in Latin Tortura Torti.  Bernard Bourdin  The Theological-Political Origins of the Modern State . Andrewes' work, punning in his title on the pseudonym Bellarmine had adopted, Tortura Torti was published in 1609. Andrewes was a significant influence on English prose; he greatly infuenced T.S. Eliot, who commends his writing as subtly communicating his philosophical standpoint: \"It is only when we have saturated ourselves in his prose, followed the movement of his thought, that we find his examination of words terminating in the ecstasy of assent\" (from Eliot's essay, 'For Lancelot Andrewes ). A very good entirely unsophisticated copy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ANDREWES, Lancelot","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816124588367,"sku":"L1789","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-10.41.04.webp?v=1781795281"},{"product_id":"sandys-sir-edwin","title":"SANDYS, Sir Edwin","description":"First unauthorised and complete edition of Sir Edwin Sandys  (1561-1629) seminal, and potentially  inflammatory, work on the state of Christianity in Europe. The result of a three-year tour around the continent, undertaken with Sandys  companion George Cranmer in 1593, the Europae Speculum professes to examine the condition of the Reformed Churches of mainland Europe, possibly with a view to suggesting some form of re-unification; in fact, Sandys never reaches the topic in this work, but dedicates nearly three quarters of the book to detailed description and analysis of Roman Catholicism,  enumerating their beliefs, practices, government, and the means used to increase power, frequently finding merit in their customs and ideas while disapproving of the way in which these were put into practice , Mary Ellen Henley, Sir Edwin Sandy s Europae Speculum: a critical edition. Sandys writes that the French Catholics were most ripe for a reunification with Protestantism; he believed that Italy would first have to abandon its predilection for popery and that Spain, a lost cause, should be left to the Jews and the Moors.  In his book, Sandys avoided polemics, seeking not sectarian victory but a church that could, by transcending sectarianism, reunite Christendom.  Henley.   The work first appeared in 1599, in a number of manuscript copies; it was pirated anonymously in June 1605 without Sandys  consent. The Gunpowder Plot of November that same year created strong anti-Catholic feeling in England; in response, the High Commission ordered that copies of the Europae Speculum be burnt, possibly at Sandys  own request. However, three editions were still produced. The work proved popular in Europe: Paolo Sarpi,  that great Catholic supporter of Protestantism , whom Sandys had met on his tour, translated it into Italian, and Hugo Grotius,  that great Protestant supporter of Catholicism  (Trevor-Roper), read it in the French translation. Sandys died in October 1629, and it is unclear what hand he had in the production of this edition, much expanded from the 1605; his name does not appear on the title page, but does on ¬∂2. The author of its anonymous introduction claims that the 1605 was 'but a spurious stolen Copie,,,throughout most shamefully falsified \u0026amp; false printed', and that the present edition is printed from 'a perfect Copie, verbatim transcribed from the Authours original''. It was certainly some seventy pages longer.   Sir Edwin Sandys, second son of the Archbishop of York of the same name, had a long and successful career in British politics; he became an MP in 1589, holding various seats in parliament until three years before his death. He was knighted in 1603, and became High Sheriff of Kent in 1615. He is, however best remembered for his involvement in the Virginia Company; he was instrumental in the establishment of Jamestown, lent money interest-free to the Pilgrim Fathers and believed passionately in the creation of a permanent British colony in North America. Joseph Mendham (1769-1856) was an English clergyman who studied in great depth controversies between Catholicism and Protestantism, amassing a large theological library.","brand":"SANDYS, Sir Edwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816124981583,"sku":"L1811","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Sandys-4.jpg?v=1781795281"},{"product_id":"burgos-pedro-alfonso-de","title":"BURGOS, Pedro Alfonso de","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good copy of the first edition of this rare commentary on the life of the Virgin Mary. The author, Friar Pedro Alonso de Burgos (1500-1572), is considered the most outstanding hermit writer of Montserrat (Spain). He was born in one of the islands of Zeeland (Netherlands), but his parents were originally from the diocese of Burgos. After completing his studies of theology at the University of Louvain, de Burgos spent some time at the service of emperor Charles V, until the Duke of Bejar   one of the courtiers of the emperor   brought him to Spain to be the tutor of his children. Later, after visiting the Montserrat monastery in Catalonia, he decided to stay and became a monk. Described by his contemporaries as penitent and assiduous, devoted in prayer and in all spiritual exercises, he abandoned the monastery in order to lead an eremitic life in one of the mountain hermitages. Here, he was often visited by important personalities, including King Philip II, Emperor Maximilian II of Austria and his wife, as well as the Marquis of Cortes, Juan de Benavides, to whom this work is dedicated. He exercised his spiritual influence outside of the hermitage through his writings, which consist in a series of ascetic treatises on the topics of solitary life, theological virtues, devotion to God and to the Virgin Mary. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n During the Council of Trent (1545 1563), the veneration of Mary was strongly reaffirmed in opposition to protestant reformers, who, although honouring the Virgin, were questioning the validity of her cult. As a consequence, Marian devotion blossomed in the XVI century, and this short biography is a fascinating witness of this renewal and strength. It contains forty-eight chapters dealing with her life, attributes and divine qualities, followed by a four-leaf section at the end featuring a series of additional short texts regarding her. In particular, there is a letter from Dionysus Areopagitae to the apostle Paul, two letters exchanged by St. Ignatius and Mary, one from St. Ignatius to the apostle John, and a poem in praise of the Virgin by Petrus Comestor. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Only a small number of books were printed in Barcelona in the 16th century, and Claudio Bornat (fl. Barcelona 1556-75) produced only a few of these. An editor, printer, bookseller and writer of French origin, Bornat obtained great recognition from his editions in Latin, Spanish and Catalan.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BURGOS, Pedro Alfonso de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816125145423,"sku":"SN2591","price":2950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_2837.jpg?v=1781795281"},{"product_id":"columna-petrus-galatinus","title":"COLUMNA, Petrus Galatinus.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very rare and curious Cabalistic work from Gerson Soncino s short lived Orthona press, which produced four books, one of them in Hebrew.  Most interesting of all of these is the work of Petrus Galatinus, the Franciscan,  On the Mystery of the Catholic Truth  (...) we find among [Gerson s] publications the ancient classics as well as Catholic publications (...) and most remarkable of all the book of Galatinus, which was not only Catholic but distinctly anti-Jewish in purpose, introduced to the public in Hebrew verses by the author or some apostate editor as a book filled with loveliness, expounding the secrets of the Talmud in which may be found the very foundation of Christian Messianism the unity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The desire to find support in the Hebrew books for the doctrine of the Trinity arose out of the spread of Cabalism, a so-called science, through which Jewish mystics attempted to explain the mysteries of heaven and earth, and which had many Christian devotees, among them the famous Cardinal Egidio of Viterbo, who in this very year 1518 had assisted in the establishment of a Hebrew press in the city of Rome . (Amram cit. infr.)\u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n Galatinus (al. Columna) was a converted Jew from Apulia who in the present work, dedicated to the Emperor Maximilian no less, undertook the defence of Reuchlin for his interest in the Cabala and Jewish books. He explains that in times past the Cabala had been secretly and orally transmitted, though recent Jews such as the Rabbi Simeon had written about it lest it be lost entirely, albeit in veiled terms. Galatinus holds that the Talmudic tradition enables one to piece out gaps or corrupt passages in scripture. He also deals at length with the Tetragrammaton and the divine names, the rest of the book being concerned chiefly with the Messiah and the time of His coming. A remarkable and substantial work of Judeo-Christian mysticism of the esoteric kind which fascinated many of the Renaissance s most considerable minds.\u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n  It is also a beautifully produced and very handsome volume.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"COLUMNA, Petrus Galatinus.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816125178191,"sku":"SN2632","price":15000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/SN2632-Columna-5.jpg?v=1781795278"},{"product_id":"martinus-strepus","title":"MARTINUS Strepus","description":"\u003cp\u003eMagnificent copy of this grand French chronicle and history of the popes in a stunning early 17th-century binding probably from the workshop of Florimond Badier, one volume rubricated in a contemporary hand. The chronicle in its present form was assembled from that of Martin Polonus (d. 1278), which ends in 1277 with the burial of John XXI. It was continued up to Urban V (1362) by Echard Verneron (Canon of Liege), and then in the second volume from the texts of 'plusiers croniqueurs', who include: Jean de Troyes, Gaguin, Jean de Montreuil and Jean Castel. Volume I remains an important source for the history of the Avignonese papacy. The second volume comprises a history of France in the period from 1399 to 1503, including the collapse (c. 1500) of the Parisian bridge where Verard's shop was located, forcing him to move to the address on colophon of vol II and giving a date ante qua non for the production of the work. The second volume is also an important historical document, for the later periods of the Hundred Years War, from the high point of the English conquest up to their expulsion from the whole of France except Calais. Martinus was Martin Strebski, born in Troppau, a Dominican friar, papal chaplain and penitentiary under Clement IV and succeeding popes, and finally archbishop of Gnesen. His 'Chronica Pontiicum et Imperatorum' is a history of the world, and was \"the favourite handbook of the later Middle Ages\" (Catholic Encyclopaedia). It enjoyed a broad readership and tremendous popularity. His chronicle includes the (mythical) story of the female Pope, 'Pope Joan', and it is here that name is first used. Martinus tells the story that after Leo IV (847-55) the Englishman John of Mainz occupied the papal chair. He was, it is alleged, a woman. Taken as a girl to Athens in male clothes by her lover, she made such progress in learning that she was without equal. She came to Rome, where she taught science, and attracted the attention of learned men. She enjoyed the greatest respect on account of her conduct and erudition, and was finally chosen Pope, but having become pregnant by one of her attendants ('mais Durant sa papalite elle fust engrossie de son familier'), she gave birth to a child during a procession, dying almost immediately. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The principal family of Avacourt or Avaugour were of the old Breton nobility, related to the Ducal house. The second descended from François de Bretagne, natural son of Duke Francis II. It has not been possible to indentify who commissioned these splendid bindings. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Florimond Badier, who is thought to have come to Paris from Gascony, was apprenticed to Jean Thomas, gilder in 1630 and completed his studies in 1636. In 1645 he married the daughter of the binder Jean Gillede and was made free of the Guild of St Jean. Badier like Le Gascon (it has been suggested the two were the same) was a master of the pointill é or dotted style which increased the brilliance of the gilding, favoured by the leading French binders in the first half of the C17 and incorporated into the most splendid bindings of the time. Three very fine and intricate pointill é bindings signed by Badier are known and represent the pinnacle of delicacy and precision.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MARTINUS Strepus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816125538639,"sku":"L523","price":32500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_7557.jpg?v=1781795278"},{"product_id":"gysius-johannes-and-las-casas-bartolome_","title":"GYSIUS, Johannes and LAS CASAS, Bartolome_","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the of these two important works published in the Netherlands in 1620, containing French translations of two earlier works detailing Spanish crimes and atrocities in both Europe and the New World. The first part is an abridged version of  Oorsprong en voortgang der Nederlandtscher beroerten  (Origin and progress of the disturbances in the Netherlands) by Johannes Gysius (died 1652), first published anonymously in 1616. The second part is a translation of Brev√≠sima relaci√≥n de la destrucci√≥n de las Indias (A short account of the destruction of the Indies), written by Bartolom é de las Casas (1474 1566) in 1542 and first published in 1552. These histories were published together under a new title by Jan Evertszoon Cloppenburch (1571 1648), an Amsterdam bookbinder and publisher of Bibles and patriotic and religious books and tracts associated with the Dutch Reformed Church. Gysius was a minister, whose book is a history of the Dutch revolt against Spain in 1555 98, containing accounts of such events as the sieges of Haarlem, Leiden, and other cities and the execution by the Spanish of Count Egmont in Brussels in 1568. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Las Casas was reprinted in 1620 and 1630. The first of these editions appeared in Amsterdam without any prefatory matter not even the author s .. relying largely on copperplates to tell a pictoral story of torture and cruelty on the title page and throughout the text. The publisher, Jan Evertz Cloppenburg, presented a typology of Spanish cruelty. He included two title pages set up in identical ways with the same pictures . The first,..was on the Low countries and the second was about the new World and preceded Las Casas s account. The first title page included writing surrounded by pictures of men, women and children being tortured. Philip of Spain presided at the top and centre above the title, his vassals  Don Jan  and the  Duke of Alva  are shown facing the title: the Spanish cruelty in the Netherlands was mirroring that in the New World. .. This symbolic correspondence was a central typology of the Old World and New. Cloppenburg was asking the readers to see the Old World through the New. .. Here the publisher says that the Spaniards brought war and tyranny to the Low countries under the same religious pretext that they used to tyrannise the Natives in the New World a hundred years before. The heretics and the Lutherans in the Netherlands had taken the place of the pagans an Idolaters of the New World. .. In some of the engravings in Cloppenburg s edition, the inhabitants of the Netherlands are naked like the Natives. The translation, which is from the dutch, sometimes elaborates beyond Las Casas s original to make the Spaniards seem even crueler. The engravings of the Flemmish artist Theodore de Bry, which had been in the Frankfurt Latin edition of Las Casas in 1598, constituted part of this edition, where they reinforced visually the worst atrocities in the text.  Jonathan Hart  Literature, Theory, History.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A good copy of this important reinterpretation both these works.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GYSIUS, Johannes and LAS CASAS, Bartolome_","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127144271,"sku":"L1795","price":4850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/l1795-le-miroir-10.jpg?v=1781795273"},{"product_id":"acosta-jose-de","title":"ACOSTA, Jos é de","description":"\u003cp\u003eThird edition of these pioneering treatises on the geography, anthropology and evangelisation of South America, previously published in Salamanca in 1588\/1589 and 1595. Jos é de Acosta (1540-1600) was among the first Jesuit missionaries to embark for the Spanish New World. He spent much of his life in Peru. The main settlement of the order was at that time in the village of Juli, on Lake Titicaca. Here, a college was set up to study the languages of the natives, while the newly-funded Jesuit printing press issued the first printed book of the Americas in 1577. Later, Acosta moved to Lima and taught theology at the university. In the Third Council of Lima (1582-1583) reorganising the American church, Acosta took a very active part and became its official historian. Following an adventurous journey through Mexico, in 1587 he head back to Spain, where he was appointed head of the Jesuit college in Valladolid and later Salamanca. A prolific writer, he is mostly famous for his very successful Historia natural y moral de las Indias. This knowledgeable, realistic and detailed description of the New World was sought after and soon translated into Italian, French, German, Dutch and English. The Natura novi orbis opening this edition represents the early draft of the Historia. In it, Acosta provided the first account of altitude sickness, which affected him while crossing the Andes. He also divided the Amerindians into three categories, acknowledging the Incas and Aztecs as fairly advanced societies in the civilisation process. The second part comprises a very innovative essay on evangelisation. Acosta struggles to demonstrated to his contemporaries that Amerindians were part of the original God s plan for mankind and thus were not inferior creatures undeserved of being Christianised and saved. In grounding his argument, the idea that the first inhabitants of America migrated from the biblical world (specifically from Asia), played a crucial role. Indeed, he was the first writer to postulate the existence of a land bridge at the northern or southern extremities of the two continents, long before the discovery of the Bering Strait. In his missionary zeal, Acosta was much concerned with the preparation and morality of priests, who he encouraged to study the aboriginal languages as an essential part of their duties.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ACOSTA, Jos é de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127439183,"sku":"L1787","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1787-Acosta-666-e1436265905365.jpg?v=1781795273"},{"product_id":"mexican-church","title":"MEXICAN CHURCH","description":"\u003cp\u003eExtremely rare first edition of the decrees issued by the third Mexican Council of 1585 and approved by the papacy four years later. Gathered by the Viceroy and Archbishop Pedro Moya de Contreras, this highly influential assembly brought the decrees of the Council of Trent into the religious and social life of the New World, drawing up a legislation amazingly in use until the early twentieth century. Bishops attending the council focused mainly on doctrine, the internal organization of the Mexican province, missionary activities and rights of local people. Their decisions were first recorded in Spanish and later translated into Latin, so as to be confirmed by the pope. Yet, the Roman cardinals  committee in charge of approval rewrote large part of the decrees, strictly sticking to those of the Tridentine Council. As a result, the final official text came out only in 1622. The printed marginalia of the volume refers constantly to the sources of the Mexican decrees. Along with canon law and papal bulls, they comprise especially the deliberations of the Council of Trent, of the five Synods held in Milan under Carlo Borromeo as well as assemblies of the American and Spanish Church in Lima, Quiroga, Guadix and Granada. The final part of the book, and perhaps the most important, is devoted to the statutes of the recently-established Mexican Church. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The beautiful engraving of the title shows the personification of the Faith and Church in a classical architectural frame. It is signed at the bottom by the Dutch artist Samuel Stadanus. Stradanus worked in New Spain from about 1604. His most prominent patron was the promoter of this belated first edition, Archbishop Juan P érez de la Serna (1573-1627), whose arms appear at the head of title.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MEXICAN CHURCH","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127504719,"sku":"L1925","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4959.jpg?v=1781795274"},{"product_id":"bible-1","title":"BIBLE","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis charming and prettily decorated portable Bible is an untouched and unspoiled early example of the Parisian Bible of the 13th century. It was copied and decorated in the second quarter of the century, shortly after university theologians completed the standardization of the biblical texts. The new Vulgate had been created to facilitate university teachers and members of the preaching orders, who often travelled between universities, monasteries and church congregations in different parts of the country. It was therefore conceived as a text that could be copied in volumes of diminutive format, written on very fine parchment in the tiny formal Gothic script mostly used until then for marginal glosses. The new biblical vulgate started circulating in its final form about 1230. The present manuscript is therefore an early representative of the Parisian Vulgate. The text is complete and all the canonical prologues, each rubricated in full and decorated with an illuminated or a pen-flourished initial. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The initials are elegantly decorated with twirling rinceaux in colour and gold, and sometime include small dragons or other grotesque winged animals intertwined with the scrolling foliage. The puzzle initials, formed of interlocked scalloped segments in red and blue separated by a thin white line, are filled with curling pen-work decoration dotted in blue. A similarly curling and dotted decoration surrounds them and elongates into the margins in elegant pen strokes of red and blue. The style of the painted decoration resembles closely to works of the Parisian workshop known as the  Vie de saint Denis Atelier  (active 1230-1250) for the Benedictines of the Priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs in Paris and the Cistercians of Clairvaux Abbey (see Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de france, MS latin 233). It also closely recalls the style of manuscripts produced at the same time in Amiens, Northern France for the Benedictine Abbeys of Anchin, and Marchiennes (see Douai, Bibliothèque Municipale, MSS 18, 20 and 21). The small codicological feature of parchment tabs marking the beginning of books, now removed from the present manuscript, adds a further link to manuscript Bibles produced at Amiens for monastic use (see R. Branner, Manuscript Paintings in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis; a Study of Styles, Berkeley, 1977, cat. 210, pl. X). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In the 13th century the manuscript was used in a monastic or ecclesiastical institution as indicated by the index of liturgical readings added at the end of the volume by a 13th-century hand which was more used to writing monastic cartularies or ecclesiastical deeds than liturgical books. The prominence given to the feast of St Vincent of Saragossa (22 January) at the beginning of the readings for the Proper of the Saints, suggests a particular devotion to the saint. St Vincent is the patron saint of Macon and Viviers in France, Berne in Switzerland and Soignies in Belgium. A particular veneration for St Vincent and the probable Flemish origin of the fifteenth century binding combine to point to the collegiate church of St Vincent at Soignies as the probable 13th-century owner. St Vincent s was built as the church of the Benedictine Abbey founded by St Vincent Madelgarius (d. 677), a Flemish nobleman. Soignies Abbey was dissolved and transformed in secular Chapter in the 11th century. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In the 17th century the book was in Prussia, in the possession of Johann Friedrich Bessel, a philologist of Tilsit, respondent and praeses at the Universities of Wittenberg and Helmstedt between 1654 and 1667. Left after Bessel s death with others of his book to Christopher Horch Senior, possibly the father of the German physician Christopher Horch (1667-1754) of Berlin, it was given by Horch to an unidentifed individual on 13 February 1682 ( Hac Biblia manuscripta donata \/ mihi fuit √† Dn. Christophero \/ Horch Sen. ex libris relictis \/ B. Dn. M. Besselj \/ Anno 1682 .d. 13 Febr.  on upper pastedown). The unnamed recipient of the book was probably either Heinrich Bartsch (1627-1702), councillor, treasurer and vice-mayor of Könisberg, who gave his collection to Könisberg Stadtbibliothek, or his son Heinrich Bartsch Jr (1667-1728), a jurist at the University of Wittenberg. In 1718 the library was opened to the public by Bartsch Junior, who donated his collection of Bibles. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In the 19th century the book was stamped  Stadtbibliothek Koenigsberg  twice in the lower margin of fol. 1 recto. The Bible is mentioned in the library catalogue A. Seraphim, Handschriften-Katalog der Stadtbibliothek Königsberg i.Pr., Königsberg i.Pr., 1909, p. 300. The library was destroyed by a bomb in August 1944. Since 1946 Königsberg has been part of Russia.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BIBLE","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127963471,"sku":"K36","price":150000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_7999.jpg?v=1781795270"},{"product_id":"bressani-francesco-giuseppe","title":"BRESSANI, Francesco Giuseppe","description":"\u003cp\u003eExceptionally rare and important first edition of this work by the Jesuit Bressiani giving the first general description in Italian of the Jesuit missions in Canada among the Huron and Iroquois tribes.  Francesco Giuseppe Bressani published his Breve Relatione in Italian in 1653. It is the only part of the voluminous Jesuit Relations or Relations des J ésuites that is in Italian. .. It is a factual account of the years Bressani spent in New France as a missionary among the settlers and Native people. At the same time it is a vision of the possibilities of future Italian settlement in the New World. As a result Bressani's chronicle may be examined as a testament to his religious faith and to his imagination in constructing the image of a martyr.  Joseph J. Pivato. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Bressani was born in Rome in 1612 and in 1626 joined the Society of Jesus. In 1642 Bressani was in Canada where he first worked in the French settlement of Quebec and the following year was sent to Trois Rivières to the Algonquin mission. In April, 1644, on his way west to the Huron missions he was captured by the Iroquois who killed one of his Huron companions and then took Bressani, a French boy, and five other Huron captives south into the territory which is now New York State. They tortured him for two months, before he was ransomed by Dutch settlers at Fort Orange and sent back to France in November, 1644. The following year he was back in Canada working at the Huron Missions until their destruction by Iroquois attacks four years later. In 1649 a war-party of some twelve hundred warriors attacked Huronia. By this time many Iroquois had firearms which they had procured from the Dutch on the Hudson River, the Jesuits were forced to retreat east to the territory of Quebec. Bressani, however, continued to work with the scattered and fugitive Hurons for some months back in the original Quebec settlements. Only his failing health forced him to return to Italy in 1650. He opens his description with reference to Pope Urban VIII letter of 1638 that forbade the enslavement of Natives in the New World. As subjects of the missions the natives were recognised as human beings with souls that needed to be saved. It is clear that Bressani shared these ideals and enthusiastically followed them in his mission work. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Breve Relatione is organised into three parts. The first presents a very positive image of the missions: Bressani describes the geography and vegetation of Canada, and then deals with the Native people. The second describes the conversion of the Native people and the many difficulties encountered by the Jesuits who arrived to convert them. The third gives us graphic details about the suffering, torture, and martyrdom of the missionaries including the author. Bressani goes into great detail describing the society of the Hurons. He lists their food and feast celebrations, their communal singing and dances, explains marriage practices and compares them to those of the ancient Jews. He points out that in their system of government tribal chiefs are determined by succession by way of the mother's line. In their system of justice crimes of theft and murder are dealt with through fines and gift giving for reparation. It is clear that he admires these people for their honesty, hospitality, and inherent sense of right and wrong. He also describes the many obstacles the Jesuits encountered: the harsh climate, river rapids and waterfalls, the dangers of the journeys due to Iroquois attacks, the problems with the different Indian languages, conflict with the Indian medicine men, and the plagues which killed large groups of Natives. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In the second part he includes his letter to his superior in which he recounts his capture by the Iroquois, his tortures, forced travels, beatings, starvation, mutilations, and final rescue. The third and final part of the Breve Relatione deals with the sufferings of the missionaries at the hands of the Iroquois in which Bressani gives several accounts of torture and martyrdom, reproduced from other volumes of the Jesuit Relations written in French, including the martyrdom of Father Isaac Jogues, Father Charles Garnier, and Noel Chabanel. He also recounts the fate of Father Anne de Noue who died of cold when he got lost in the snow.  In the Italian we can almost hear Bressani's voice as he argues that their (the Hurons) intellectual capabilities and skills are as good as those of any bright Europeans. They are capable of learning and knowledge and of showing faith. What we find in the first chapters of Breve Relatione is an image of the noble savage, long before this idea was expressed by Jean Jacques Rousseau in 1778.  Joseph J. Pivato.. An excellent copy of this exceptionally rare work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BRESSANI, Francesco Giuseppe","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816128127311,"sku":"K20","price":13500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/K20-2-1.jpg?v=1781795271"},{"product_id":"joachim-de-fiore","title":"JOACHIM, De Fiore","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition, beautifully illustrated with the fine engraving of Giralamo Porro, of the medieval Papal prophecies, wrongly attributed to Joachim of Fiore, including a final prophecy predicting the fall of the Turkish Empire, the so called  Red Apple  prophecy. The work contains the commentary on the prophecies by Pasqualino Regiselmo. There were three variants of this first edition according to Edit 16, all line by line copies, and this copy has been extra illustrated with the variant, fine, full page engraved portrait of Joachim writing by divine inspiration; it also has the full page image of the  Wheel of the Popes . There follow the 30 prophecies in Latin and Italian, each illustrated by fine emblematic engravings, the Turkish prophecy, with a full page illustration, and Regiselmo s commentary. A series of prophecies concerning the Papacy circulated in ms. from the late thirteenth to early fourteenth century concerning popes from Pope Nicholas III onwards, in the form of a Latin text which assembled portraits of popes and the prophecies related to them. The texts and illustrations are so closely related they must have been conceived together. The prophecies, based on Greek prototypes, were probably intended to influence one of the ongoing papal elections, possibly written in opposition to the Orsini and their candidates. They are derived from the Byzantine Leo Oracles, a series of twelfth-century Byzantine prophecies that foretell a savior-emperor destined to restore unity to the empire. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The series was augmented in the fourteenth century with further prophecies, written in imitation of the earlier, but with more overtly propagandist aims. By the time of the Council of Constance (1414 1418), both series were united as the  Vaticinia de summis pontificibus  and misattributed to the Calabrian mystic Joachim de Fiore. Each prophecy consists of four elements, an enigmatic allegorical text, an emblematic picture, a motto, and an attribution to a pope. The final prophecy tells the vision of Mehemet II in which he holds a red apple which becomes progressively heavier and heavier so as to be unbearable. It prophesies the capture of Constantinople from the Christians and its later recapture and destruction of the Turks. A very good copy of this finely illustrated work.The second book contains prophetic writings falsely ascribed to Joachim, Anselmus, and other medieval mystics, illustrated with six complex prophetic astrological wheels related to various Popes. This works had previously been published with woodcut illustrations; Girolamo Porro was the first artist to supply these superb copper-engraved plates. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Sir George Webbe Dasent (1817 1896) was a translator of folk tales, a friend of Jacob Grimm, at whose recommendation he first became interested in Scandinavian literature and mythology. In 1842 he published the first result of his studies, an English translation of  The Prose or Younger Edda . In the following year he translated Rask's  Grammar of the Icelandic or Old-Norse Tongue , taken from the Danish, and later  The Story of Burnt Njal', a translation of the Icelandic  Njal's Saga  and  East O' the Sun and West O' the Moon , a collection of Norwegian fairy stories. The book then passed into the extraordinary collection of the famous bibliophile Thompson-Yates. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The binding is of great interest. Guigard (Vol I p. 20-22) attributes the monogram HD with the surrounding four S  tools to Henry IV of France and his lover, and the mother of his Children, the famous courtesan Gabrielle D Estr ées.. He suggests that as this monogram also appears on a work with Louis XIII s and Ann of Austria s crowned monograms, the work could have passed from Gabrielle s library to Louis . The S with a line through it is thought to be a punning cipher, devised by Henry IV, for Gabrielle d Estr ées; the surname being represented by a capital S. with  un trait , or stroke through it (S-trait - Estr ées.). Hobson devoted an entire article on the 'S' appearing on book bindings from ca. 1580 till 1640 and surrounding a monogram. (G.D. Hobson, 'Le problème de l'S ferm é': Hobson,  Les reliures √† la fanfare , pp. 85-119, Amsterdam 1970) He rejects Guigard s suggestion that the monogram could be that of King Henry IV, and Gabrielle d Estr ées. Hobson considers various possibilities regarding the meaning of the 'closed S , suggesting it could be an emblem of fidelity or an emblem of the loyalty to the Bourbon family; it could also mean  Sigillum'. Guigard also states that the  S could stand for  fermesse pour fermement. Cette interpretation est confirm ée par le Seigneur des Accords  but also notes that the monogram appears on other bindings that don t have a sentimental attachment to them. A most intriguing binding and a lovely copy of these works, with excellent provenance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"JOACHIM, De Fiore","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816129077583,"sku":"L1885","price":4750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1885-Joachim-2-e1439395855870.jpg?v=1781795267"},{"product_id":"mastrilli-duran-nicola-and-ranconier-jean","title":"MASTRILLI DURAN, Nicola and RAN√áONIER, Jean","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this remarkable report from the Jesuit missions in Paraguay. Nicola Mastrilli (1568-1653), from Naples, was a prominent churchman of the New World. After joining the Jesuit order, he was sent to Peru, where he changed his surname into Dur√°n and graduated at the University of Lima. He distinguished himself as a zealous preacher, directing in Juli (Bolivia) the first Jesuit mission deeply engaged with the evangelisation of the local population. In 1623, he was elected supervisor of the province of Paraguay and then of the whole Peru. His care for the Indians was all but common among the Spanish establishment and was questioned even by some member of his order. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n These letters, addressed to the general of the Society, Muzio Vitelleschi, recorded the fast expansion of Jesuit activities in the southern region of the Spanish Viceroyalty, mainly between 1626 and 1627. They were written on Mastrilli s behalf by his confrere and collaborator, the Belgian Jean Rançonier. As other contemporary reports from the Americas and the Levant, the letters met immediate success and were translated into French two years later.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MASTRILLI DURAN, Nicola and RAN√áONIER, Jean","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816129634639,"sku":"L1966","price":4850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1966.jpg?v=1781795269"},{"product_id":"roman-catholic-church","title":"ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the official Catechism of the Catholic Church following the decrees of the Council of Trent. It is an instructive guide to either learn or teach the foundations of Catholicism, based on the Apostles' Creed, the Decalogue and the Lord's Prayer. It is not, however, a mere set of questions and responses but a lengthy treatise on most aspects of the Catholic faith for the benefit of the clergy rather than the laity; it is addressed to parish priests, whose religious education was often faulty and poor.  This editio princeps is an important specimen of the Aldine press s output, since it was published by Paolo Manuzio during his stay in Rome as the first official papal printer in history. Pius IV established this pioneering papal press in 1561, but its onerous expenses were soon laid on the Roman Commune. This is why the device on title has the symbols of the city of Rome, the coat of arms of the Commune with the famous motto SPQR and, at foot, the small Aldine dolphin twisted on an anchor with Paolo Manuzio s initials at sides. Renouard, Brunet and Graesse noticed that two different, equally valuable issues were carried out, but their order of appearance has not been established.   This is a copy from the Jesuit College of Rome. Founded in 1551 by St Ignatius of Loyola, such an epoch-making institution contributed significantly to forming the Italian and European Catholic ruling class for centuries. Here, the Jesuits developed their famous forward-looking study plan (Ratio studiorum) centred on Latin and Greek, philosophy, theology and maths; several similar colleges were successfully established by that order throughout the continent. Its massive library, comprising some very important historical bequests, was incorporated into the Italian National Library in Rome following the end of Papal rule over the city in 1870.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816129798479,"sku":"L2055","price":6250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2055-Catechismus-1-e1439553426308.jpg?v=1781795266"},{"product_id":"cardim-antonio-francisco","title":"CARDIM, Ant√≥nio Francisco","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst uncommon edition of an early account of the Jesuit mission in Japan, established by St. Francis Xavier in the mid-sixteenth century, and other Christian outposts in Southern Asia. The original Portuguese text was never printed, while this Italian translation was probably accomplished by the Jesuit Giacomo Diacetto. A rare and partial French version was published the following year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAntónio Francisco Cardim (1596-1659) was a leading Jesuit missionary in the Far East, spending many years converting locals and organising Christian communities in the ancient kingdoms of Ayutthaya, Lan Xang and Tonkin. Back in Rome and later in Portugal, he supervised the large ecclesiastical province of Japan, which included also Macau and the Siamese area, and wrote several works related to those regions; most famously, he thoroughly recorded the persecutions of the Japanese Christians from 1597 to 1640 and published one of the earliest detailed map of Japan. His Relatione, dedicated to Pope Innocent X, narrates the troubled life of the Jesuit Company in Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, as well as Macau and the island of Hainan, dwelling from time to time on interesting linguistic problems in transposing Christian dogmas into the Oriental languages and cultures.\u003cbr\u003e\nThis copy was bought by Bellisario Bulgarini (died 1660), nephew of the renowned bibliophile and scholar of Siena Bellisario Bulgarini (1539-1620). Bellisario the Younger records in the inscription at the end of the book that he acquired the volume for one lira from the bookseller Filippo Succhielli. He contributed to the enlargement of the vast family library, on which see Cento anni di libri: la Biblioteca di Bellisario Bulgarini e della sua famiglia, circa 1560-1660 (esp. no. 257bis) and Dennis E. Rhodes, ‘Per la biblioteca di Belisario Bulgarini e per la storia del mercato librario in Siena lui vivente (1539-1620)’, in Studi bibliografici: atti del Convegno dedicato alla storia del libro italiano nel V centenario dell’introduzione dell’arte tipografica in Italia, Bolzano, 7-8 ottobre 1965, Florence 1967, pp. 159-168.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CARDIM, Ant√≥nio Francisco","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816130781519,"sku":"L1980","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9598.jpg?v=1781795263"},{"product_id":"sandys-edwin-with-boccalini-traiano-and-d-estampes-de-valencay-leonore","title":"SANDYS, Edwin [with] BOCCALINI, Traiano [and] D ESTAMPES de VALEN√áAY, L éonore","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn interesting collection of controversial treatises on early seventeenth-century religion and politics, two of which bear a false imprint to elude censorship. The opening work is the first and only Italian edition of an influential Stuart treatise on the situation of religion in Europe. An able politician and pioneering investor in North America, Edwin Sandys (1561-1629) completed his studies in Oxford, befriending his tutor Richard Hooker. Later, he travelled in Europe and in Venice wrote this anti-Catholic report with the help of the Venetian scholar Paolo Sarpi.   The Relation was first published in 1605 against the author s will and then expanded until 1637. This remarkably early Italian translation is variously attributed to the pen of Sarpi or Giovanni Diodati   the famous Calvinist pastor and scholar of the Bible   and was almost certainly printed in Geneva (where a community of Italian immigrants, religionis causa, was settled). According to a recent reattribution, the translator may well have been William Bedell (1571-1642), chaplain to the English ambassador in Venice Sir Henry Wooton and later translator of the Bible into Irish. Although the peculiar printer s device on title shows a dolphin twisting around an anchor like the famous Aldine device, the Latin motto is incorrectly  Festina tarde  instead of  Festina lente .   The second work is a very early edition of a mordant political parody, printed several times in the course of 1615 and later on in the century under a fictitious printing place such as  Cormopoli  or  Cosmopoli . This covering stratagem was necessary since the book ridiculed, alongside other European rulers, the king of Spain and the German Emperor. Traiano Boccalini (1556-1613) was a famous satirical author, whose most successful and entertaining work was Ragguagli di Parnaso. Pretending to be the official reporter of a divine parliament chaired by Apollo on Mount Parnassus, Boccalini fearlessly mocked the contemporary society and politics. The Pietra del paragone politico, published posthumously, was in fact a continuation of the Ragguagli. On leaf Bivr, one can find a witty account of Thomas More enquiring of Apollo as to the end of all heresies.   The volume ends with a booklet printed by Antoine Estienne, scion of the renowned dynasty of French printers. Written by the Bishop of Chartes, L éonore D Estampes (1589-1651), it is a defence of the unscrupulous expansionistic policy undertaken by Cardinal Richelieu and King Louis XIII in the Thirty Years  War, replying promptly to the pamphlet of the Jesuit scholar Jakob Keller entitled Ad Ludovicum XIII Regem admonitio. A counterfeited octavo edition with Estienne s name and device was published by Robert Young in London also in 1625.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SANDYS, Edwin [with] BOCCALINI, Traiano [and] D ESTAMPES de VALEN√áAY, L éonore","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816130978127,"sku":"L2110","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2110-Sandys-1.jpg?v=1781795263"},{"product_id":"origen-adamantius-with-aquinas-thomas-and-origen-adamantius","title":"ORIGEN Adamantius [with] AQUINAS, Thomas [and] ORIGEN Adamantius","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn appealing collection of influential biblical commentaries, including the first editions of Origen s rare homiletic exegesis on the Pentateuch, the Books of Joshua, and Judges and St Paul s letter to the Romans, all in the Latin translations of St. Jerome. Origenes Adamantius (c.185-c.254) was the most prominent textual critic of the Bible of the early Church as well as an authoritative and prolific commentator. He exerted great influence especially over Eusebius and Jerome, though some of his radical ideas (i.e. the final redemption of all creatures and their ultimate reconciliation with God) prevented him from being regarded as a Church Father.   Together with the pioneering edition of the Bible comparing six different versions of the Hebrew and Greek tradition (Hexapla), the numerous homilies Origenes preached in Caesarea represent his most relevant contribution to early Christian Biblical scholarship. The central work bound in this volume is the third edition of Thomas Aquinas' commentary on St. John's gospel, first published in Rome in 1470. That this collection was used by contemporary scholars is proved by the numerous annotations of two German hands, reporting mainly biblical references.  The Aldine edition of Origenes marks an important turning point in the history of this famous press. In its anonymous preface to the reader, the role taken by Andrea Torresani, Aldus's father-in-law and business partner, was finally acknowledged in print: men of letters were said to be indebted equally to Andrea s generosity as an entrepreneur and to Aldus s outstanding skill as a humanist printer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ORIGEN Adamantius [with] AQUINAS, Thomas [and] ORIGEN Adamantius","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816131010895,"sku":"L2156","price":15000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2156-Origen-1-e1450291411161.jpg?v=1781795262"},{"product_id":"travamala-de-salis-battista","title":"TRAVAMALA DE SALIS, Battista","description":"Charmingly bound, most probably in Flanders, by a German binder, as evidenced by the use of cord for sewing supports. The three cords, laced through holes in the wooden boards, are kept in place by wooden nails, a technique that began to die out in the 1480s. It also bears covered endbands (caps), the leather held in place by secondary sewing.\r \r The early C16 purchase note in this copy states it was  emptus in auctione  (bought at auction) at the sale of the estate of its earliest recorded owner, a Magister Heinsius, priest of the Catholic church of St Aldegondis, probably one of the dozen Flemish churches devoted to her. Aldegonde was a typically Flemish saint; she appears in the early C15 ms. litany of the saints used as fep in this copy, suggesting it was bound and purchased in Flanders. The purchase note refers to a very early sale unrecorded in Dutch Book Sales Catalogue, van Selm and Pollard \u0026amp; Ehrman. Unlike major post-1600 auctions, mostly organized at Leiden or The Hague by the Elzevirs, this probably took place in a sizeable Flemish town; of the earliest (late C15) records of Flemish auctions we possess, all but one concern books owned by church ministers (Hellinga,  Four Book Auctions , 261-69).\r \r The work is prefaced by the poem  To the Buyer . It begins with  The life of man is short , probably too short to read all the books that need to be read. It continues with  For us this [book] alone is sufficient instead of many. \/ This is the chosen book, called Rosella; to the reader \/ [It is] helpful; and it will not be damaged by the cold. \/ Buyer, you have a soul you should feed like a flower . An early form of book advertisement. It belongs to the  address to the buyer  genre, first recorded in Aesop s  Vita et fabulae  of 1474. Such verse adjusted the traditional authorial valediction to the reader found in mss ( go, little book ) to the newer practice of single sheets or appendixes marketing individual books or stock lists to potential buyers (e.g., Hellinga,  Sale Advertisements , 2; Pollard \u0026amp; Ehrman,  The Distribution , 1-6).\r \r Early and second octavo edition of this famous manual for confessors, first published in Novi Ligure in 1484 and expanded by the author four years later. Battista Travamala, died 1496, was a Franciscan friar from Salo, in Liguria, from which he took the alternative name de Salis. His most influential work was this  Summa casuum , also known as  Summa Baptistiana ,  Rosella casuum  or  Summa Rosella , completed in 1483 in the convent of Levanto. It had immediate success.\r \r Following the deliberations of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, a large number of manuals on penance appeared, to enhance priests  intellectual preparation and instruct them on how to be prudent confessors. These handbooks discuss in detail the foundation of moral theology, presenting as questions (casus) numerous examples of correct application of canon law. This Summa adopted the alphabetical order of topics, in line with Bartholomeus de San Concordio, author of an earlier Summa. Relying on this and previous literature, Trovamala independently developed some important legal principles, such as those regarding invalidity of marriage where spouses were only pretending to live together.\r \r This edition also provides a rare early example of pocket-size octavo pertaining neither to devotion or (as developed by Aldus two years later) classic literature. As the three owners  inscriptions on title point out, this genre of books was meant to be used by clerics at any time in their daily work and thus needed to be easily transportable. One of the priests using this very remarkable copy even marked the beginning of alphabetical sections to recover information more quickly.","brand":"TRAVAMALA DE SALIS, Battista","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816131502415,"sku":"L2113","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2113-1.jpg?v=1781795261"},{"product_id":"book-of-hours-2","title":"BOOK OF HOURS","description":" This charming Book of Hours was produced in Bruges. These books were the result of the work of a number of different artisans and artists working separately on the different phases of production - the copying of the text, the decoration of minor initials and line fillers, and the illumination of initials, borders and miniatures. \n  \n The devotional texts were usually copied on dedicated single or multiple quires according to their length, with the beginnings of the canonical hours copied on rectos; they were then assembled in volumes whose textual sequences corresponded to the requirements of the individual customers, with dedicated miniatures inserted to face the beginning of the canonical hours and other illumination and decoration added to the clients  taste and means. \n  \n All the illuminated miniatures of the present manuscript are on the verso of added singletons whose parchment is often heavier and thicker than the soft and beautiful parchment of the quires, which shows hardly any visible difference between the flesh and the hair side. \n  \n It is therefore unusual to find manuscripts made by the same scribe, rubricator, decorator and illuminator\/s, but each of their components may find matches in different manuscripts. This manuscript shows the same textual and illustrative sequence as London, British Library, MSS Harley 1853 and Stowe 26, but for the absence of the Mass of the Virgin and perhaps of the Psalter of St Jerome at the end. The three manuscripts are also similarly diminutive. Its beautiful Italianate Gothic hand matches that of Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum MS. W. 179. The rubrication and decoration of minor initials and line-fillers is close to that of Les Enlumineures Book of Hours 61, BL Stowe MS 26, Walters MSS 190 and 196 (made for Queen Eleanor of Portugal), and the Derval Hours, Sotheby s, 5 July 2005, lot 98 (made for Jean de Ch√¢teaugiron, seigneur de Derval and chamberlain of Brittany). The accomplished decoration of the borders finds correspondence in Les Enlumineures Book of Hours 61 and possibly Chicago, Newberry Library, Case MS. 35 (the Mildmay Hours). \n  \n The sequence of miniatures for the Hours of the Virgin corresponds to the cycle of the Infancy of Christ as was customary in Southern Flanders at the time (see B. Bousmanne, \"Item a Guillaume Wyelant aussi enlumineur,\" Bruxelles, 1997, p. 164). The manuscript was undoubtedly illuminated in the circle of Wilhelm Vrelant (d. 1481; active in Bruges from 1454), the most successful illuminator in Bruges at that time. His patrons included the Dukes of Burgundy and members of their family and court as well as French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian royalty, diplomats, aristocrats, bankers and wealthy merchants. \n  \n Judging from their surviving manuscripts, he and his collaborators produced devotional books in far greater numbers than any other text; it is therefore not surprising that at the time the so-called  Vrelant style  became very popular and had a strong impact on the production of Books of Hours. \n  \n The full-page miniatures are in the style of an anonymous illuminator singled out among Vrelant s collaborators by Nicholas Rogers and given the name of the Mildmay Master after a Book of Hours in the Newberry Library in Chicago (Case MS. 35) that in the 16th century belonged to Sir Thomas Mildmay (b. in or before 1515, d. 1566), Auditor of the Court of Augmentations for Henry VIII. The master collaborated with Vrelant in the decoration of a four-volume copy of the Golden Legend in French translation for Jean d Auxy, knight of the Golden Fleece (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MSS 672-675. \n  \n A direct comparison with the Book of Hours in the British Library (Harley MS 3000) suggests that the artist working on the present manuscript is not the Mildmay Master, even though he is seemingly the same artist of a Book of Hours attributed to him in S. Hindman and A. Bergeron-Foote, An intimate Art. 12 Books of Hours for 2012, London, 2012. He is also the same artist of another devotional manuscript (Walters MS. W. 177). \n  \n The anonymous artist of these three manuscripts managed to avoid the sharp linearity and rarefied stillness that characterise the works of the Mildmay Master and used a different and warmer palette of deeper blues and reds. The iconography of his decorative cycles follows the models employed by Vrelant and his followers, but his miniatures display distinctive delicate features for the Virgin (see here the Annunciation, the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi on fols 24v, 64v and 78v), elongated male faces (in particular of Christ on the Cross and David in prayer on fols 1v and 124v), landscapes of rolling green hills and mountains turning to dark blue in the distance, and interiors characterised by gilt-embroidered tapestries and pink and grey walls with white-stucco decoration that includes a very distinctive element. \n  \n This element recalls the monograms in the trade-mark stamps imposed on the Bruges illuminators by the town administration to stop the import of illuminated single leaves by foreign artists who were not registered with the Guild. This decorative element is particularly similar to the stamp of Adriaen de Raedt, an apprentice of Vrelant in the years 1473-1475, who was occasionally named as Vrelant in the Guild s documents. \n  \n Almost all miniatures in the present book are a simplified version of the standardized Flemish iconography for the cycle of the Infancy of Christ disseminated by Vrelant and his followers, and found, for instance, in two Books of Hours attributed to Wilhelm Vrelant and\/or associates(Walters MSS W. 196 and 197), and in the Arenberg Hours attributed to the Mildmay Master (Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, MS. Ludwig IX 8 (83.ML.104)). The fall of the idol from the column in the miniature of the Flight to Egypt (fol. 103v), in particular, is reminiscent of the Mildmay Master s representations of the Apostle Bartolomew and Felix of Ostia destroying Idols or Mamertinus of Auxerre praying to Idols in the New York Golden Legend (PML, MS. M 675, fols 22r, 51r and 56v respectively). \n  \n The representation of the Crucifixion is the only exception. In the figures of the fore-ground and the landscape in the background our artist paraphrases the Crucifixion in Vrelant s style as found in Walters MS. W. 197 (fol. 34v) and the Arenberg Hours (fol. 134r), but for the central scene of the Crucifixion with Christ flanked by the two thieves he seems to look elsewhere, possibly at the Crucifixion attributed to the so-called Vienna Master of Mary of Burgundy in the Hours of Mary of Burgundy (Vienna, √ñsterreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS. 1857, fol. 99v) and the Trivulzio Hours (The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Ms. SMCi, fol. 94v), executed about 1470-1475, which echo the Crucifixion in Joos van Ghent s Calvary triptych of the late 1460s. A similar dating for the present manuscript is consistent with the style of the all its other features. \n  \n The volume provides no clue towards the identification of its original owner. Like many famous Bruges manuscripts such as the Spinola Hours (Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, MS. Ludwig IX 18) and the Grimani Breviary (Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, MS. Lat. I, 99) copied by scribes imitating Italian bookhands, or indeed by Italian scribes working in a Bruges, and decorated by Flemish artists, the present book was beautifully produced on smooth white parchment of the highest quality and copied in an elegant round Italianate Gothic hand. \n  \n The litany is of Augustinian Use, with Paul the First Hermit and Nicholas of Tolentino (canonized in 1446) among the doctors and confessors and Monica among the Virgins; other saints added to an otherwise standard text for the Use of Rome are Alexis at the end of monks and hermits, and Saints Margaret, Barbara and Elisabeth among the Virgins. \n  \n The masculine forms used in most prayers, including  Obsecro te  and  Intemerata , with the only exception of the last, suggest that the book belonged to a man; the inclusion of the prayer  Deus propicius esto mihi peccatori et custos mei sis omnibus diebus vite mee,  traditionally attributed to St. Augustine, may indicate that he was a man of some importance, possibly a member of the large Italian community of merchants and bankers in Bruges, or a major local patron.","brand":"BOOK OF HOURS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816131764559,"sku":"K34","price":95000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_7956.jpg?v=1781795260"},{"product_id":"gailkircher-wilhelm","title":"GAILKIRCHER, Wilhelm","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst and only edition of a rare moral and devotional book of emblems. Very little is known about the author. Gailkircher was born in Munich and later became canon of S. Maurice in Augsburg and a respected Catholic Neo-Latin poet. This is his only published work, in which Gailkircher mixed the wisdom of the ancient philosophers and writers   Plato and his followers in particular   with Christian precepts, so as to devise a guide for heaven ( Charriot of Aeternitas ). Virtuous examples and mottos are provided along with some remarkable engraved illustrations by Sadeler, including the Last Rites, Last Judgment, Hell, Christ as Salvator Mundi, Virgin and Child, the navicula Petri and an allegorical depiction of Vices. The Quadriga is dedicated to the secretary of the archbishop of Cologne. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy was bound for the well-known English collector, George Spencer-Churchill, 5th Duke of Marlborough (1766-1840), Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. His crest, a griffin s head between two wings expanded out of a ducal coronet, appears on the covers surmounted by two crowns, one for the dukedom, the other for the Spencer barony. Most of his family fortune was spent on books and antiquities, which he amassed on his estate at Whiteknights Park at Earley, near Reading.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GAILKIRCHER, Wilhelm","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816132026703,"sku":"L1884","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1884-Gailkircher-1-e1449158779421.jpg?v=1781795258"},{"product_id":"bible-2","title":"BIBLE","description":"","brand":"BIBLE","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816132387151,"sku":"L2197","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2197-Bible-1635-1.jpg?v=1781795257"},{"product_id":"sucquet-antoine","title":"SUCQUET, Antoine","description":"\u003cp\u003eBeckford s copy of the first edition of 'an immensely popular book' (Praz) of Catholic devotion. Antoine Sucquet (1574 - 1627) was a Belgian scholar and leading member of the Jesuits in the Low Countries. Together with his Testamentum Christiani hominis, this is his only published work, providing complex visions of Heaven and Hell through a strong combination of text and images. Each emblem is beautifully illustrated with a high-quality plate by a pupil of Rubens, the Flemish artist Bo√´ce van Bolswer (1580 - 1633), and is accompanied by biblical quotations and in-depth explanations in prose referring to the figures depicted. The book found immediate success, with frequent reprints and translation into the main European vernacular languages, even if no later edition was able to retain the remarkable style of the engravings illustrating this editio princeps. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n As pointed out in the modern pencil annotations on the front pastedown and the following cut-out from an early twentieth-century sale catalogue, this copy comes from the library of two eminent British collectors, William Beckford (1760 - 1844), and the 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767 - 1852). It was sold as lot 2302 during the eleven day-sale of the third portion of his renowned collection, in July 1883. In light of Beckford s interest in Catholic culture, it is not surprising to find marks of his illustrious ownership on Jesuit books.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SUCQUET, Antoine","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816132550991,"sku":"L1888","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1888-Sucquet-1.jpg?v=1781795255"},{"product_id":"molitor-ulricus","title":"MOLITOR, Ulricus","description":"\u003cp\u003eA beautiful copy of this exceptionally rare and important text, the first and most important illustrated work on witches and a work that has defined the image of witches to this day. The  De Lamiis,  was first published in 1489 with the same series of iconic woodcuts. It is one of the earliest printed works on witchcraft, and contains the first ever illustrations of witches. This, probably the first Basel edition, is beautifully printed in a fine gothic letter in thirty-two lines and very finely illustrated with seven stunning woodcuts depicting witches and their activities. The first depicts two witches around a large pot, one throwing in a cockerel the other preparing to throw in a snake, the resulting brew creating a storm. The other blocks represent a lycanthropic scene of a wizard mounted on a wolf, the devil disguised as a bourgeois man corrupting a woman, the ensorcellment of a man by a witch firing a spell, witches transformed into animals flying on brooms, and a group of three witches around a table. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The book is written in the form of a dialogue between the author and the dedicatee, the Archduke Sigismund of Austria, who doubts the existence of witches. At a time when complete theories about witchcraft were yet to be established, the author defended belief in the powers of the Devil and his ability to trick the human mind. The woodcut depicting three witches together, eating and drinking beneath a tree, is typical of the format of the work. The title on the previous page to this woodcut reads  An super lupum vel baculum unctum ad convivia veniant et mutuo comedant et bibant et sibi mutuo loquantur ac se invicem agnoscant.   Can [witches] come to feasts on a wolf or an anointed stick, eat drink, speak together and recognize one another?  The women are not doing anything other than eating but the image has become deeply anchored in the popular imagination, as it was used and referred to again and again in imagery and literature throughout the centuries, not least in Shakespeare s  Macbeth.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  The first tract on witches to be illustrated, 1489   94, was written by the lawyer Ulrich Molitor from Constance in 1484. He actually argues against the persecution of witches because he was sceptical of the value of confessions under torture. He did, however, believe that they were heretics and should be punished with death. In the illustrations, the witches are not characterised by any special dress or undress, implying that all women were capable of being witches. They look like ordinary housewives except in the  Flight to the witches  Sabbath, when they are changed into animal shapes. Although the text speaks of the witches  evil activities being a figment of their imagination, delusions inspired by the devil, the illustrations portray the effects of their malignant and harmful magical spells as real enough, e.g. a witch shooting at a man who tries to jump away, or witches making a brew, using a rooster and a serpent as ingredients, whilst hailstones come crashing down from the sky. Molitor certainly believed in the reality of their sexual intercourse with the devil.   Picturing women in late Medieval and Renaissance art  by Christa Grössinger. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  With the appearance of Ulrich Molitor s  On Witches  in 1488   89, the arguments of the Malleus were repeated in the literary format of a conversation among Molitor, Duke Sigismund of the Tyrol, and Sigismund s minister Conrad Schatz, with a suite of seven remarkable woodcuts that for the first time offered related pictorial images of witches  activities without any identifying physical or costume features attributed to witches   that is, some of the illustrations seem to depict ordinary women doing ordinary things.  Witchcraft in Europe, 400   1700. Alan Charles Kors, Edward Peters. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Several of the incunable editions of this book, including the first, have the date 10 January 1489 on the colophon. ISTC and GW date this edition to around 1495, though it is clearly earlier than Fairfax Murray (German, volume II, no. 289) also ascribed to Basel, Amerbach or Furter, which contains identical but broken versions of the same woodcuts, which Fairfax Murray dates to 1490. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Brunet cites this copy from the library of Reagh Mac-Carthy, the great Irish bibliophile (who found refuge in France, near Toulouse) in his sale of 1815 (I no. 1678). Justin  Reagh  Mac-Carthy himself bought some of the major collections of the C18th, such as the library of Giradot de Prefond, and founded one of the richest personal libraries ever assembled, which included over eight hundred volumes of works printed on vellum. He also seems to have profited from the na√Øvety of the Librarian of Albi, Jean-François Massol, who was proud to have  swapped  several precious medieval manuscripts with him for more  useful  works such as Buffons  8vo.  Histoire Naturelle.  The sale of his books at Paris in 1815 was one of the greatest of that century. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy then passed to the library of the Marquis of Germigny (sold 1939, no 13). In Mac-Carthy s sale the work is recorded as being bound with the  Tractatus Utilissimus artis memorative  by Matheoli Perusini (1498). This work was probably removed at some stage when the binding was restored. (As this work was only seven leaves, its removal did not affect the spine.) Its last owner was the great Scholar, author and bibliographer Guy Bechtel, author of the  Catalogue des Gothiques Francais 1476   1560.  We have found no record of the early sixteenth century owner,  Millot de Sombernon.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A lovely copy of a hugely important text with a very beautiful and most influential set of woodcuts, and most distinguished provenance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MOLITOR, Ulricus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816132813135,"sku":"K29","price":95000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8035.jpg?v=1781795255"},{"product_id":"bible-cistercian","title":"BIBLE, Cistercian","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis large splendid volume was produced in Northern Italy in the second half of the twelfth century for the use of a monastery of the Cistercian order, established in 1098 by Robert of Molesme at C√Æteaux. The unusual order of the biblical texts (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel; Epistles, Acts and Apocalypse; the Gospels), reflects a programme of reading in the Night Office carried out in Cistercian communities from Advent to Epiphany, Lent, and Easter to Pentecost (ordo librorum ad legendum; Reilly 2005, pp. 169-170). The Cistercians included the reading of the four Gospels into the refectory element of their annual cycle, but excluded the Passion narratives as highlighted in the manuscript by the marginal notes  Hic dimittatur legere in refectorio  (fols 201r, 215r, 239r) (Webber 2010, pp. 20 n. 47, 32). The large size of the volume, the two-column layout, well-spaced lettering and use of red minor initials throughout were designed to assure legibility for reading aloud. The principal hand is a very fine example of top quality 12th century calligraphy, elegant yet clearly legible. The additional punctuation supplied by the second hand in a darker ink in accordance with the Cistercian practice of indicating short, medium and long pauses in the reading, supplied further helpful guidance (Parkes 1992, pp. 195, 197). The textual corrections by this second hand testify to the attention paid to the correctness of biblical texts in accordance with St Bernard of Clairvaux s wishes. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The sober yet elegant decoration of the initials also follows the Cistercian practice of austerity, including restrained decoration in their manuscripts. The initials to Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel are similar in style to those found in a 12th-century manuscript Bible now in the Biblioteca Civica  Angelo Mai  at Bergamo, MA 600 (olim Alpha V 17; see Zizzo), with an almost certain Cistercian origin. The three initials in red with reserved and red and black penwork decoration on leaves 110r-111v are consistent with the decoration of Cistercian manuscripts produced in Italy, as in two 12th-century codices; an Office lectionary at Harvard, Houghton Library, Typ 223 online at http:\/\/hcl.harvard.edu\/libraries\/houghton\/collections\/early_manuscripts\/bibliographies\/Typ.cfm, from the Abbey of Morimondo (Ferrari 1993, p. 299) and from Acquafredda Abbey (see Ferrari 1993, p. 295) a 12th century Commentary on The Old Testament-Pentateuch by Isidore of Seville and Hugh of St Victor s Rex Salomon, now at Berkeley, Bancroft Library, MS UCB 16. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Both these manuscripts have covers almost identical to the present, and bear similar titles on the second spine compartment, also found on Jerome s Commentary on the Minor Prophets, now Milan, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Gerli MS 12, identified by Ferrari (Ferrari 1999, pp. 36, 41-42, 44) as one of the manuscripts mentioned in the twelfth-century book list from the Abbey of Morimondo found on the last verso of the Abbey s Office lectionary mentioned above (Houghton Library, Typ 223). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The present manuscript shares the same 18th-century provenance, if not origin, as those three manuscripts now at Milan, Berkeley and Cambridge. From the beginning of the eighteenth century many manuscripts from Cistercian abbeys in Lombardy were collected at the monastery of S. Ambrogio in Milan to support the programme of cultural reform promoted by the Congregation of St Bernard in Italy and the Austrian government. On arrival at S. Ambrogio, they may have been supplied with new covers and a manuscript title on the spine. The present manuscript must have arrived about the same time, when the influx increased exponentially with the suppressions of the monasteries in the last quarter of the century; many of these codices were then dispersed onto the open market. A good number were acquired by the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, but many entered private collections, such as those of the marchesi Trivulzio of Milan, Count Francesco Giovio (1796 - 1873) of Como, and Matteo Luigi Canonici (1727 - 1805), Jesuit and antiquarian of Venice, further dispersed through later sales. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A twentieth-century note in English pencilled on the upper flyleaf suggests that this manuscript may have passed through the hands of the bookseller Giuseppe (Joseph) Martini of Lugano between 1913 and 1942, though it is not mentioned by Ferrari in her list of Cistercian manuscripts described in Martini s catalogues (Ferrari 1999, pp. 34-35). It was Martini who probably invented the myth of provenance from the library of the celebrated humanist Paolo Giovio (1483 - 1552) still recorded in the literature of some Italian Cistercian manuscripts (see Berkeley, University of California, Bancroft Library, MS UCB 16, in Digital Scriptorium).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BIBLE, Cistercian","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133206351,"sku":"K56","price":250000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/K56-3-1.jpg?v=1781795253"},{"product_id":"fitzralph-richard","title":"FITZRALPH, Richard","description":"\u003cp\u003eExtremely rare edition of the major published work of the C14th Archbishop of Armagh, Richard Fitzralph, the first printed book by an Irish author, a work which defended the secular clergy in their contest with the mendicant orders; this edition was most probably printed at Paris at the instigation of the secular priest Paul Harris who was himself involved in a similar dispute at Dublin over three centuries later. Richard FitzRalph, Archbishop of Armagh, one of the most eminent Irish churchmen of the middle ages, was born at Dundalk about the end of the 13th century, and was educated at Oxford where he became Chancellor in 1333. He was made Chancellor of the church of Lincoln in 1334, became Archdeacon of Chester in 1336, and was installed Dean of Lichfield in 1337. He was advanced to the see of Armagh By Pope Clement VI. and was consecrated at Exeter, on 8th July 1347. Fitzralph's controversy with the friars came to a crisis when he was cited to Avignon in 1357. Avowing his entire submission to the authority of the Holy See, he defended his attitude towards the friars in the plea entitled \"Defensorium Curatorum\". He maintained as probable that voluntary mendicancy is contrary to the teachings of Christ. His main plea, however, was for the withdrawal of the privileges of the friars in regard to confessions, preaching, burying, etc. He urged a return to the purity of their original institution, claiming that these privileges undermined the authority of the parochial clergy. The friars were not molested, but by gradual legislation harmony was restored between them and the parish clergy. Fitzralph's position, however, was not directly condemned, and he died in peace at Avignon.  Catholic Encyclopaedia. \u003cbr\u003e\n This edition contains an additional foreword under the title,  Ad Lectorem prfatio apologetic  which has been attributed to the secular Priest Paul Haris then involved in a violent dispute with Thomas Fleming, Franciscan archbishop of Dublin. Paul Harris was not the only Secular Priest to oppose the Friars and it is certain that the secular priests looked to FitzRalph s work for inspiration.  David Rothe, Bishop of Ossory, and first member of the new counter-reformation episcopate being established in Ireland from 1618, was alleged to hold the view that members of religious orders had forfeited their rights to the old monastic impropriations and even speculated that members of religious orders were not, in the strict sense members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Rothe s regular opponents even dubbed him un Segundo Richardo Armachano after Richard FitzRalph the anti-mendicant fourteenth-century archbishop.  John McCafferty.  The Reconstruction of the Church of Ireland . A very good copy of a very rare work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FITZRALPH, Richard","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133599567,"sku":"L2066","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2066-3.jpg?v=1781795251"},{"product_id":"zerola-tommasi-with-visconti-zaccaria","title":"ZEROLA, Tommasi [with] VISCONTI, Zaccaria","description":"\u003cp\u003eElegantly bound volume comprising two uncommon first edition treatises connected with the Catholic Jubilee of 1600. Little is known about their authors. Tommaso Zerola (1548-1603) was an acclaimed canon lawyer of Benevento and later bishop of Minori, while Zaccaria Visconti, professional exorcist of the Barnabite Congregation of St Ambrose in Milan and teacher of this art, flourished between the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. The first work, dedicated to the pope s nephew Cardinal Cinzio Aldobrandini, deals extensively with the practice of indulgence or remission of sins   a highly relevant topic for pilgrims going to Rome on the occasion of the Holy Year. The second and more curious treatise addresses exorcism, providing the theological and theoretic framework as well as a manual of instruction on techniques, prayers, formulae, rituals and all sorts of remedies to expel the Evil within. As pointed out in the initial dedication, Visconti hoped that his books would help reduce the number of cases of demonic possession recently recorded in the Milanese area. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy belonged to the Franciscan convent of Schwaz, in Tyrol, once a prominent silver-mining centre of the Augsburg Empire.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ZEROLA, Tommasi [with] VISCONTI, Zaccaria","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133730639,"sku":"L2205","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2205-Zerulam-15.jpg?v=1781795251"},{"product_id":"bible-3","title":"BIBLE","description":"\u003cp\u003eA rare edition of this finely printed Protestant bible in a beautiful and richly worked contemporary mosaique morocco binding, immaculately preserved, with its original silvers clasps and catches, a most handsome present commissioned for the wedding of in Geneva in1617 of Louis Dufour and Catherine Franconis. The Société Genevoise de Généalogie states that Catherine Franconis married, on 2nd February 1617, at the Temple of Saint-Gervais in Geneva, Louis Dufour and they later had a daughter Madeleine Dufour which confirms that this bible must have been made as a wedding gift. Their names are jointly stamped on the verso of the catches with the date 1616. The lovely Geneva binding is a very fine example of the best bindings of the period, extremely finely and delicately worked for its small size, with tiny inlays of darker morocco, making for a subtle all over design. The shape of the Bible with its large flat spine allowed the binder to create a most unusual panel design on the spine mirroring those of the covers. The silver clasps and catches are very beautifully worked in very fine grotesques and survive in perfect condition, as does the rest of the binding. This Bible was exhibited in the exhibition ‘Ten centuries of the French Book’ (Dix siècles de livres français) organised by the Musée des Beaux-Arts at Lucerne on the 9 July to 2 October 1949 (cat., n°357)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis Geneva Bible, beautifully printed in a very fine minuscule Roman type, imitates, on a small scale, the great Estienne folio Bibles of the previous century. It is completed with the addition of a Psalter, by the same printer, probably intended to accompany this Bible, though they are not always found together. The Psalter is followed with the ‘forme des prières ecclésiastiques’, the catechism, and the confession of faith in 40 articles by the Reformed Church of France. (“Confession de foi faite d’un commun accord par les François qui désirent vivre selon la pureté de l’Evangile de Nostre Seigneur Jésus-Christ”). A finely printed Bible remarkably preserved in a most beautiful contemporary binding.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BIBLE","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133894479,"sku":"L2196","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2196-2.jpg?v=1781795217"},{"product_id":"jesuit-relations","title":"JESUIT RELATIONS","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst Italian edition of an epistolary account of the Jesuit missions from all over the early modern world, translated from Spanish. It concerns in particular the vast maritime domain of the Portuguese Empire, consisting of numerous strategical harbours on the coasts of Africa, South Asia and South America. This network was instrumental in controlling the trade of spices and precious metals, but offered also safe starting points for Catholic evangelisation. This collection of letters narrates travels to and fro and daily missionary life in Brazil, India, China, Japan and Ethiopia, providing details of the Jesuit activities, including mass conversions, as well as relevant information on local people, flora and fauna. Often, missives are sent to or from the St Paul s College of Goa, which was established about 1542 by Francis Xavier as the educational and cultural centre of the Jesuit expansion in the East, and housed the first printing press in India from 1556. These letters were highly sought after in secular Europe, often providing the only reliable information available on the political, economic, commercial and social conditions of large and increasingly important part of the globe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"JESUIT RELATIONS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133992783,"sku":"L2144","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/avisi.jpg?v=1781795217"},{"product_id":"bale-john-bade-conrad","title":"BALE, John [BADE, Conrad]","description":"\u003cp\u003eA beautiful copy of this rare and most influential translation into French, by the celebrated protestant publisher and author Conrad Bade, in a most elegant French binding. The binding, exceptionally well worked in gilt using fine crushed red morocco, is very much in the style of Derome the younger (see British Library Shelfmark c42c9 with his ticket). However it is almost certainly the work of the highly skilled if little known Jean-Baptiste Gosselin (whose niece married Michel Derome) and who, it is claimed, executed special bindings for Louis XVI. According to Erick Aguirre, who himself supplied this information, Gosselin bound several copies of the Bale for the bookseller Guillaume-Luc Bailly in about 1785. M. Bailly's price codes are in very small letters at the foot of the final end-paper. Mr. Aguirre has also identified this copy as lot 3913 in the 1803 M éon sale (little red numbers on foot of t-p) where it was purchased by Morel de Vind é. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Bale (1495-1563), a former Carmelite monk who converted to protestantism, later bishop of Ossory, was one of the most outspoken English Protestants of the first half of the C16. After the fall of his patron, Thomas Cromwell in 1540, he fled to Germany, where he busied himself in composing the bitter diatribes which earned him the nickname \"Bilious Bale\". On the accession of Edward VI he returned to England to share in the triumph of the reformers and publish in London the works composed in exile. Bale initially wrote this work in Latin and it was first published in Basel in 1558. It was translated into English, with additions by John Studley, as  The Pageant of Popes  in 1574. The French is the first translation into the vernacular. Conrad Bade is justly recognised as a hugely important publisher just for the publication of his friend Calvin s works but was also a satirical author in his own right. He published his most famous satirical work the  Alcoran des Cordeliers  in 1556 and followed this with another attack on the abuses of the Church with his  Satyres Chrestienes de la Cuisine Papale .  The third polemical work which Badius printed was a translation from Bishop John Bales history of the Popes, Acta Pontifcum Romanorum. Its most interesting feature to us is Bale s preface in praise of Geneva as it appeared to him in 1558. In this work, which was produced in 1561, Badius reveals himself as a poet, by his versification of the various rhymes in the original,  Like so many who tried their hand at verse in this period, he was never a great poet, yet he was at least spirited and readable which is more than could be said of most of his contemporaries.  Lewis Lupton  Conrad Badius . \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A very fine copy of this extremely rare work from William Beckford s library. William Thomas Beckford (1760   1844) extraordinarily wealthy English novelist, art critic, travel writer and politician, now chiefly remembered as the author of the Gothic novel Vathek and builder of the remarkable Fonthill Abbey, the enormous gothic revival country house, largely destroyed. Beckford's fame rests as much upon his eccentric extravagances as a builder and collector as upon his literary efforts. The opportunity to purchase the complete library of Edward Gibbon gave Beckford the basis for his own library, which was extensive, and dispersed over two years in 1883-4.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BALE, John [BADE, Conrad]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816134385999,"sku":"K42","price":13500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/K42-Bale-Bade-1-e1466263738521.jpg?v=1781795215"},{"product_id":"duret-jean","title":"DURET, Jean","description":"\u003cp\u003eInteresting and rare commentary on the Edict of Blois by Jean Duret, bound with the very rare  Verification of the Edict by the Parlement of Bretagne  of great social and legal interest. The States-General of Blois in 1576 declared itself against the Edict of Beaulieu, which had given Huguenots the right of public worship for their religion, throughout France, except at Paris and at Court, and thus began the Sixth War of Religion. The edicts are printed in full in a large Roman type and then followed by Duret s commentary in smaller Roman in which he comments on the intentions and meaning of each article. The edicts that resulted from the States-General of Blois are of great social interest as they deal with re-imposition of laws that clamped down on protestant practices which were reflected throughout society. They deal with such things as regulation of the universities, hospitals, prostitution, taverns, bookselling, banks, astrologers etc. There are many articles that treat with marriage, particularly clamping down on clandestine marriages, and inter-marriage between Catholics and Protestants.  Along with the Catholic and reformed churches  rules, royal edicts decreed by the French crown during the sixteenth century constituted a third set of laws concerning marriage. The Edict of Blois, issued by Henry III in 1579, echoed some of the council of Trent s provisions: couples were required to marry publicly, after the proclamation of banns and in the presence of four witnesses. According to the edict, however, the officiating priest was responsible for assuring that spouses had obtained their parents  or guardians  consent - something that was not required by canon law. The edict also forbade notaries to authorize any exchange of vows that took place without public ceremony or parental consent, on pain of bodily punishment. royal clerks were ordered to collect the parish records or marriages, births, and deaths annually, to swear the truth of their contents, and to provide information from those records on request.  Diane Claire Margolf. Religion and Royal Justice in Early Modern France. An excellent copy of this rare and interesting legal commentary.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DURET, Jean","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816134910287,"sku":"L2285","price":1350.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2285-Duret-1-e1466259186439.jpg?v=1781795211"},{"product_id":"lactantius-firmanus","title":"LACTANTIUS, Firmanus","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare early edition of this popular and important first French translation of the Divine Institutes by the French humanist and prolific translator Ren é Fame, secretary to François Ist, first published in 1542. This edition was printed by Prevost and shared by at least three publishers including Cavellat. Lactantius was a rhetorician and early Christian apologist who lived in Roman North Africa. He was a pupil of the early Christian scholar Arnobius of Sicca (d. c. 330), travelled widely teaching in the cities of the Eastern Empire, and was appointed to a professorship in Nicomedia by the Emperor Diocletian, entering the imperial circle. There he presumably met the future Emperor Constantine, and himself became a convert to Christianity. He destroyed his earlier pagan writings, resigned his post and fled, fearing Diocletian s purge of Christians and the first imperial edict against the religion in 303. Jerome records that he then lived in poverty, until Constantine came to power and recalled him to the imperial court in 311\/13, appointing him tutor to his son Crispus. He must have died in the 320s. His works were rediscovered during the Renaissance, and his elaborate rhetorical Latin style proved immensely popular, earning him the title the  Christian Cicero  from humanists such as Pico della Mirandola.   The Divine Institutes is his magnum opus, written during his period of court exile. It contains seven lengthy treatises which set out a comprehensive survey of Christian theology, and build an argument intended to show the reasonableness and truth of Christianity and the futility of pagan beliefs. More importantly for the Renaissance and modern readers, Lactantius frequently quotes Classical sources in this work, and in fact this was the principal vehicle through which Renaissance readers came into contact with the Latin Classics. Lactantius includes substantial quotations from two lost works by Cicero, the Hortensius and Consolatio, and all of our modern reconstructions of those texts are based on his excerpts. In addition, he knew a complete copy of Cicero s De Legibus, a text which now survives only in a fragmentary state, and his quotations add substantially to our knowledge of it. His frequent citation of sources also has importance for early Biblical scholarship, in that his fourth book includes some seventy-three quotations from the Old Latin Bible, the Latin version of the first few centuries of Christian history, which was replaced by Jerome s Vulgate in the late fourth century, and does not survive anywhere as a complete text. This edition, as all early translations of his works, is rare.  Martin du Riviage is probably the Magistrate and minister general of the Treasury at Lille, a lawyer and brother in law of the City s mayor who was in office between 1591 and 1625.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LACTANTIUS, Firmanus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816135958863,"sku":"L2329","price":3500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_5470-e1506787533861.jpg?v=1781795208"},{"product_id":"thomas-de-jesus","title":"THOM√ÅS, de Jes√∫s","description":"\u003cp\u003eImportant first edition of this major work on missionary theory by the great Discalced Carmelite Monk Tomas de Jesus, (Diego Sanchez Davila) one of the most important figures of the Discalced Carmelite movement, a work of great influence in the establishment of missions throughout the New World. Thomas was named Provincial of Casilla in 1597 and founded another desert Monastery at Las Batuecas shortly after. During this time he was invited by the Carmelite fathers of the Italian congregation to join a missionary expedition to the Congo, however he preferred to remain in solitude in his retreat. Shortly after however, on rereading the first chapter of the foundation work of the order by St. Theresa D Avilla, he had a profound change of heart. He made a vow to work on the conversion to Christianity of all those who were outside the Church, and wrote to his Italian  confreres to inform them of his availability to travel anywhere in the world. With this goal he returned to Rome. The African mission had not materialised so whilst in Rome he wrote this treatise in which he formed the view Carmelites should give themselves to the missions as it was entirely within the spirit of contemplation that founded the order. He developed the idea that Monks and Solitaries, due to their rigorous training were most qualified for this apostolic mission. He developed these thoughts in a second work  De procuranda salute omnium gentium  which, together with this, would serve as one the chief works used in the formation of missionaries for centuries especially after the creation of the congregation for the propagation of the faith.   An attempt in this direction (creating new missionaries) had been made soon after the Council of Trent, but was not followed up. The pope, struck with the missionary zeal of the Carmelites, consulted Thomas of Jesus as to the best means of bringing about the conversion of infidels. This religious, in his works \"Stimulus missionum\" (Rome, 1610) and especially \"De procurand√¢ salute omnium gentium\" (Antwerp, 1613), laid down the disciples upon which the Holy See actually instituted and organized the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda.  Catholic Encyclopaedia.  His purpose was not only to prepare missionaries to Evangelize the indigenous peoples of the Americas, but also to provide them with arguments to refute the convictions of any kind of unbeliever. His focus on missionary activity anticipated the creation of the church s missionary office, the congregation for the propagation of the faith.  Jo Eldridge Carney  Renaissance and Reformation, 1500-1620: A Biographical Dictionary.   An excellent copy of this important first edition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"THOM√ÅS, de Jes√∫s","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816136417615,"sku":"L2561","price":2650.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4752-e1504187539787.jpg?v=1781795207"},{"product_id":"bible-4","title":"BIBLE","description":"A beautiful and rare small format Bible set comprising (I) Genesis to Ruth, (II) Kings to Job, (III) Prophets to Malachi, (IV) New Testament including Apocalypse. In vol II Esther is followed by Job and Maccabees omitted - the pagination and collation is continuous and correct, and in vol III Malachi is wrongly given the running title  Maccabees . This is essentially a reduced size reprint of the first edition of the Louvain Bible, 1547.   By an imperial edict all suspected Bibles - in Latin, or French, or Dutch - had been prohibited, and the Theological Faculty of Louvain was commanded to prepare duly authorized editions in these languages.   At the time of the Council of Trent, when the Vulgate was declared  authentic , the Roman Church possessed no duly authorised edition which was accepted as standard.   In 1547, however, there appeared this recension, put forth with the sanction of the Theological Faculty of Louvain, and protected by imperial privilege. This and the second Louvain revision (see No. 6161) were practically accepted as authorized editions until the publication of the Sixtine Bible of  1590. In his reface the editor, Johannes Hentenius, praises the work of R.Stephanus  Yet he complains that csme even of these editions were marred by the unorthodox sentiment which had crept into their prefaces, marginal notes, and index of matters. [Nevertheless] This Louvain edition of the Vulgate is practically a reprint of R. Stephanus  Bible of 1538-40, with certain modifications of the text and marginal matter, these changes been indicated by special signs.  Darlow \u0026amp; Moule II, 2 p.936","brand":"BIBLE","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816136614223,"sku":"L2648","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_2446.jpg?v=1781795205"},{"product_id":"bible-with-psalms","title":"BIBLE [with] PSALMS","description":"\u003cp\u003eA rare complete  Geneva  Bible, with the Psalms, published clandestinely in Amsterdam for the English market with a false date and imprint. The binding is very finely worked and shares the same overall design with many bindings in the British library, often with royal, or noble arms, but most particularly with a Scottish binding Shelfmark C21d12, which also has a floral border. The use of black calf and a decoration of repeated rose tools on the spine is particularly striking and effective. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The exiled English community at Geneva, during the reign of Queen Mary, became a centre for Bible study and under the guidance of Whittingham, a new translation of the Bible was undertaken. The present edition was the work of William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, Thomas Sampson, and perhaps others, revised by Laurence Tomson, with the Franciscus Junius translation of Revelation translated to English by Tomson. The Bible that was produced at Geneva used several devices to help the reader study, understand and interpret. The script was divided into numbered verses for the first time. An  argument  was also used before each book and chapter to help explain the meaning. The marginal notes amount to 300,000 words or about a third of the complete length. The translators used these scholarly annotations to clarify ambiguous meanings and for cross-referencing. King James, to impose his version, discouraged the printing of the Geneva version from 1611. The authorities of the seventeenth century were also suspicious of these marginal annotations, believing that they encouraged sedition. Indeed, James claimed that some notes were  very partial, untrue, seditious, and savouring too much of dangerous and traitorous conceits.  His attitude is perhaps unsurprising when notes such as Exodus 1:19 claimed that a disobedient act against a king was lawful. Despite royal antipathy, the Geneva Bible remained popular, often described as the  Bible of the people . It was not generally used in the Church of England as the notes were sometimes too Protestant for the Elizabethan religious settlement; it was however used in the Scottish Kirk. Indeed, in 1579 a Scottish edition of the Geneva version was the first Bible to be printed in Scotland. According to Darlow and Moule, between 1560 and 1644 at least 140 editions of the Geneva Bible or Testament appeared. It was the Bible of Shakespeare and as late as 1643, Cromwell s New Model Army was carrying the Soldier s Pocket Bible made up of extracts. This edition contains two false title pages and was certainly produced outside the monopoly of the Stationers Company. Despite the fact that unlicensed foreign texts infringed this monopoly, imported material had a sizeable share of the English and Scottish book market in the seventeenth century. Here the false imprint dates to the reign of Elizabeth I when Geneva Bibles were less controversial. The illegal transportation of books into the country was certainly monitored by the authorities. William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633-45, admitted that he had suppressed the Geneva Bible during his time in office at his trial, stating that he had suppressed this version, not only because of the controversial marginal notes, but also because he was trying to protect the economic position of English printers. John Frederick Stam was an established printer at Amsterdam who particularly targeted the English book market becoming one of the leading printers of English texts in the Netherlands, mainly producing Bibles, generally printed with false title pages which credited the printing to Barker.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BIBLE [with] PSALMS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816137138511,"sku":"K65","price":15000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/K65-1.jpg?v=1781795201"},{"product_id":"bible-decorated-manuscript","title":"BIBLE, decorated manuscript","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is a handsome and weighty thirteenth-century most probably English Bible, the format in which most readers of the Middle Ages knew the complete text. Due to its vast size, most Early Medieval Biblical books included only sections of the complete canon, but the needs of students in the fledging university in Paris in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries lead to advancements in the methods of book production in order to mass-produce complete copies for that market. Script became miniaturised and the words themselves heavily abbreviated in an effort to push resources to their limit, and at the same time libraires or master-book producers divided up master-copies to hand out in sections (or pecia) to multiple copyists at once, dramatically increasing the rate of copying. Thus they survived relatively in large numbers. However their multiple decorated initials and fine script often attracted the attentions of the commercial book dispersers from the nineteenth century onwards, and they have become fewer and fewer in the market in the last century, with examples continuing to fetch record prices. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Here the form of the text is mostly that of a more common Parisian Bible, and with the standard abbreviations of Hebrew names in the form  Aaz apprehendens    at its end. Crucially, however, the script and penwork decoration here appear English and the books of Tobit, Judith and Esther are in the order usually identifying English use. In addition, the early notes on Hebrew at the end of the book strongly indicate an early use in a medieval English scholarly setting (see below). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n What is perhaps most notable about this book is the interest of an early user in the Hebrew Bible. Additions to endleaves at the front of the volume suggest a contemporary or near-contemporary use in theological teaching or preaching, perhaps in a cathedral school (see below), but a page of notes added in the decades after the book s production to blank space before the abbreviations of Hebrew names indicates a more specific use. This begins with the words  Thorath id est lex  with five penlines drawn off to associated lines of text. These text-lines reveal that the scribe was attempting to describe the contents of the Torah   the Hebrew Bible, here described accurately as  the law [of Moses] , and each line opens with a somewhat garbled version of the opening words of the first five books of the Old Testament: \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Bresith    in fact Bereshit (Genesis, ie.  In the beginning ) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Ellesmoth    in fact Shemot (Exodus, ie.  Names ) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Vaietra    in fact Vayikra (Leviticus, ie.  And he called ) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Vagedabar    in fact Bamidbar (Numbers, ie.  In the desert ) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Addabarim    in fact Devarim (Deuteronomy, ie.  The words ) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n These are followed by a section of brief notes on Old Testament prophets and other figures from the Hebrew section of the Bible, as well as an observation on the absence of Baruch  In hebreo canone  ( in the Hebrew canon ). This section terminates with more usual notes on religious ideals and relative Biblical dates. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Despite Jerome s and Bede s insistence on the primacy of Hebrew as a Biblical language for Old Testament texts such as the Psalms (and indeed in some medieval accounts, the original language of all mankind), actual records of northern European interest in the language or its religious texts before the Renaissance are few[1], and astoundingly so from England which had no Jewish population before 1066 and none after Edward I expelled what Hebrew speakers it had in 1290. Indeed a memory of interacting with Jews in religious discussions as a youth and then their subsequent exile some years before the period in which these additions most probably were made might well explain these strange and fascinating additions by the present scribe, as well as their garbling from his slightly faulty memory. As such this volume would appear to bear witness to the impact of the English Jewry on theological thinking and teaching in medieval England, even after the expulsion of 1290. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n [1] We might cite here the allusions by the grand scholars William of Auvergne (bishop of Paris, d. 1249) and Alexander of Hales (taught University of Paris, d. 1245) to fleeting knowledge of the works of Maimonides either through translations from Hebrew or oral contact (on these see G.K. Hasselhoff,  Maimonides in the Latin Middle Ages: An Introductory Survey , Jewish Studies Quarterly 9 (2002), pp. 1-20). However, note that while Alexander of Hales was English by birth, he worked in Paris, and this interest is more probably a continental university phenomenon, and certainly so after 1290.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BIBLE, decorated manuscript","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816137433423,"sku":"K54","price":175000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8243.jpg?v=1781795199"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/collections\/Screenshot_2026-06-20_at_2.06.23_PM.png?v=1781961533","url":"https:\/\/www.sokol.co.uk\/collections\/religion.oembed","provider":"Sokol Books Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}