[Rarebooks] fa: FRENCH THEOLOGY & MYTHOLOGY 1687-1739

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending MONDAY, November 26. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/adme5jq

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Pierre Gautruche: L'Histoire Poetique, pour L'Intelligence des Poetes & des Auteurs Anciens. Paris: Chez Nicholas le Gras, 1687. Period calf, spine decorated and lettered in gilt; 16mo (15 cm); [8], 372, [32] pp.; woodcut decorations and initials.
A relatively early printing of this popular treatise on the pagan gods and demigods, first published in 1658 and written by Pierre Gautruche (1621-1681), Jesuit teacher and philosopher. Rubbing to the boards and hinges with wear to the edges, front hinge cracking a bit at the top but secure; early ink signatures on the front free-endpaper; light damp-stain to the first few leaves; small loss to the fore-edge of the title-page; text block corners a trifled bumped, a few small spots and stains, otherwise clean and sound, firmly bound.

[Noel-Antoine Pluche:]: Histoire du Ciel : Considere selon les idees des Poetes, des Philosophes et de Moise. Ou l'on fait voir 1°. L'Origine du Ciel Poetique. 2°. La meprise des Philosophes sur le fabrique du Ciel & de la Terre. 3°. La conformité de l'expérience avec la seule Physique de Moïse. Paris: Chez la Veuve Estienne, 1739. FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, 12mo (17 cm), in period French calf bindings, spines decorated in gilt; [2], xx, [2], 411, [1] pp.; [4], 459, [1] pp.; with the half-titles, 25 engraved plates.
First edition of this famous treatise on cosmogony and theogony, with discussions of the ancient Egyptians and Romans, religious ceremonies, divination, alchemy, Aristotle, the Peripatetics, Epicurus, Gassendi, Descartes, Newton, etc. etc. Moisture damage with staining to the boards and intermittent tide-mark to the margins of the pages; hinges cracked or cracking but all the boards are secure; vol. I with a crack at the spine head; otherwise sound, firmly bound.