1565 L. Coelii Lactantii Firmiani (Lactantius). Jerome de Marnef, Paris

A handsome, red-ruled 1565 printing of Lactantius' works, bound in a (likely) contemporary leather binding with an arabesque gilt central stamp to both boards.

This Marnef printing is scarce, with the USTC only recording four copies in the world's libraries, and Brunet doesn't mention it. Marnef did include "Phenice", or the Phoenix, which isn't always attributed to Lactantius.

Lactantius was a late 3rd/early 4th-century Christian author who became an advisor to Constantine. During the renaissance, he was called the "Christian Cicero".

Lactantius' Institutiones Divinae (Divine Institutions) is "an apologetic treatise intended to establish the reasonableness and truth of Christianity to pagan critics" (wiki).

Provenance -

The ticket of book collector M. Poileve is applied to the pastedown. The catalogue for the 1894 sale of M. Poileve's library notes that the was a veracious collector, exceedingly skilled at finding great deals (as testified by the penciled prices he placed at the beginning of the books); in this copy we learn Poileve bought the book in 1856 for "55 cent". Also, of interest, the catalogue states that Poileve collected ex libris copies of Francois de Malherbe; there is an overwritten ex libris inscription at the top of the pastedown of this copy that I cannot read, there is some chance that the annotations throughout are those of Malherbe, although far from guaranteed.

Bibliographic Details -

Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) number 198770 (1565) - 3 copies in the world's libraries, all in France. USTC also lists one copy (154505) of a 1561 edition at the National Library of Scotland.

Pettegree, Walsby and Wilkinson, in French Vernacular Books... reference it as 76980.

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx. 12 x 7.5 x 3.5 cm. Gatherings signed in eight. Calf binding. Boards with double gilt fillet border with central arabesque gilt stamp. Spine with four raised bands; four compartments with a central gilt floret, one compartment with “LACTENT” in gilt. All edges gilt. Ruled in red throughout. Printer’s mark at title page and colophon. Some head and tailpieces and decorated initials.

Pages – 1-786, [46 – index from DDD2-FFF8]

Collation – A-Z8, AA-ZZ8, AAA-FFF8

Condition -

See pictures. Hinges cracked. Some rubbing to corners. Spine with some crazing and cracked at the top and bottom, but endbands still present. Block edges bright, indicating it was kept in a closed cabinet where dust didn’t build-up on the top-edge of the text block. Many ex-libris and bookseller annotations to pastedown and blank binder’s endpapers. Text block with some toning throughout; occasional fox spot, dog-eared page, page edge chip, ink spot, thumbing, etc. Title page with ink writing on verso that’s bled through a little. Occasional underlining, strike-throughs and marginal annotations throughout. Moisture spot on 441 and 489, about 1” circle. 1” chip from fore-edge margin of 607/608.