Editiones princeps and first editions of sacred texts, spiritual and confessional books, religious treatises, theology

First edition, adorned with a portrait frontispiece, drawn in ink and signed Dalex. The polychrome drawing is set within a frame traced in brown ink and accompanied by the Latin motto "gratia in me vacua non fuit" as well as the legend "Messire Jean d'Aranthon". An engraved head-piece depicting Christ and angels, with a few further head- and tail-pieces.

Contemporary brown calf, spine with five raised bands, gilt title, gilt compartments and fleurons between the bands, inner gilt dentelle. Binding lightly rubbed, with some abrasions and losses, the joint of the upper board slightly split at the head, a few light foxing marks to the leaves, some marginal dampstaining, blank...

French first edition, translated by Louis Champion de Cicé, of this treatise by Longobardo, bound with Lettre d'Eusèbe romain by Mabillon (Grenoble, Etienne Bon, 1698, 88 pp.); and Lettre à Madame de Lionne by Bernardino della Chiesa (n.p., n.d., 84 pp.)

A rare copy of one of the principal Western sources on Chinese philosophy, written by the Jesuit missionary Longobardo, who succeeded Ricci as superior of the Jesuit China mission. Also with an uncommon Grenoble edition of Mabillon's pamphlet, which opened the debate on the validity of the cult of the catacomb saints. At the end of the volume, in echo of...

First edition.

Rare copy of this esoteric work by Lazare Meyssonnier, physician and "professor of the science of spirit", on demonology and diabolic possession, the theology of the names of God and Hebrew Kabbalah, the various types of magic, operative alchemy, anatomy, angelology..

Full calf, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, faded gilt-lettered title, new endpapers added, speckled edges. Joints split, a few scuffs to the leather, gilt partly faded, first three leaves browned, a few tears, dampstaining to a majority of the leaves, and wormholes without loss to the...

Very scarce first edition of the Armenian translation, illustrated with a lithographed frontispiece and title-frontispiece printed on tinted heavy stock by Weger (Leipzig), together with several in-text figures reproducing seals.

The CCFr records only copies of the French edition (indeed, the same year 1871 saw the publication of a first French translation; a second French edition was issued in Paris in 1888, at which time a German version was also printed at the Leipzig address).

Bradel binding in half brown percaline, smooth spine gilt-ruled and tooled with a gilt frieze, marbled paper boards, endpapers soiled, corners rubbed, edges sprinkled in blue.

Some minor...

Rare first edition (cf. Tailliart 3062).

A disbound copy preserved in a plain brown paper wrapper, the titles handwritten in ink on the spine and upper cover, with a faint marginal dampstain to the title-page.

Edmond Doutté (1867–1926) was a sociologist, orientalist and Islamic scholar — fluent in both Arabic and Berber —, a multifaceted French intellectual and, above all, a French explorer of Islam and the Maghreb in his time, to whom Marcel Mauss paid tribute ("explorateur complet, géographe, géologue, naturaliste, anthropologue, ethnographe, sociologue, historien, linguiste, agent d'information")

Rare first edition, illustrated with two vignettes: one on the title page and another at the head of the opening text leaf (cf. Backer & Sommervogel VII, 185, no. 58.)

See Brunet, "Recherches sur les imprimeries imaginaires, clandestines et particulières", p. 19.

Printed on the private presses of the Turin Court of Appeal, the work offers a detailed account of the miraculous phenomena reported in Rome between July 1796 and January 1797. The author rebuts, in particular, the sceptical reactions of the "fiers à bras du philosophisme".

Our copy is preserved in its original drab paper wrappers, the spine cracked, the covers soiled, a few spots, a pale dampstain at...

Rare first edition (cf. Caillet 3017).

Full porphyry calf binding, smooth spine decorated in the grotesque style, small losses and rubbing at the foot of the spine, tan calf title label with a small loss and restoration, triple gilt fillet framing the boards, gilt rolls on the caps partially faded, marbled edges, contemporary binding.

An interesting dissertation written by President de Brosses (1709–1777) for the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, “on ancient myths, theurgy, magic, and secret cults.”

Very rare first edition of this publication by the young Belgian Orientalist Eugène-Vincent-Stanislas Jacquet (1811-1838), whose career was as swift as it was promising, but tragically cut short by tuberculosis.

Illustrated with a figure at the end of the text.

Only one copy in the CCF (Lyon).

Some minor foxing.

Binding in half black shagreen, smooth spine decorated with cold-stamped garlands and golden fillets, black oasis leather title label, cold-stamped garland on black silk boards, a slightly bumped lower corner, modern binding.

First edition (the work was reissued several times up to 1954), illustrated with a double map as frontispiece and numerous black-and-white in-text illustrations (cf. Hage Chahine 1925).

Contemporary binding in black half shagreen with corners, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt floral motifs, gilt fillet framing on marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, all edges gilt, original illustrated wrappers preserved in color.

The title is somewhat misleading: the book is not a history of the cult of the Virgin Mary in Lebanon, but rather a richly illustrated travelogue across the country from one sanctuary to the next, featuring nearly 660...

Rare first edition of this predominantly folkloric and literary work: the Forest of Bréchéliant, also known as the Forest of Paimpont, is traditionally identified in Breton folklore with the mythical Forest of Brocéliande from Arthurian legend.

Illustrated with 14 full-page plates in the first volume and 21 in the second.

Our copy was uniquely extra-illustrated at the time with 59 postcards and 2 original photographs mounted on thin cardboard and bound into the volumes.

Contemporary half black shagreen bindings, flat spines with gilt compartments and decorative gilt typographic motifs, marbled paper-covered boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns...

Rare first edition of this doctoral thesis in medicine, presented and defended on Thursday, April 7, 1892. (Copies held in the BnF, BIUM, Bulac, and Strasbourg libraries according to the CCF.)

Spine restored and reinforced, lacking the rear cover, front cover partially detached. The work addresses various public health issues related to the legal departures of pilgrims from Tunisia and Algeria to Mecca for the annual Hajj.

Very rare, but as is.

Contemporary ownership inscription in the upper right corner of the first page.

First edition of the French translation by David Durand, illustrated with 5 plates (4 folding), including a genealogical chart (cf. Brunet IV, 1203. Hage Chahine, 3949).

Contemporary full stiff vellum, spine with five raised bands, lower joint split, black morocco lettering-piece, bumped corners.

Some inevitable soiling due to the binding, light foxing to initial and final leaves, ff. 107–108 and 109–110 restored and trimmed short.

The De Religione Mohammedica was first published in 1705, and reissued in 1717 in an expanded edition.

The Dutch orientalist Adriaan Reland (1676–1718) pursued a broad range of scholarly interests, but this presentation of the...

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

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

First edition, with no deluxe paper copies issued, this being one of the publisher's review copies.

Inscribed copy, dated and signed by Georges Dumézil to Alfred Ernoul.

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

First edition of this important work, the fruit of nearly thirty years of research conducted in China by the Jesuit Léon Wieger (1856–1933), and which remains a valuable reference despite the narrowly confessional bias that frequently comes to the fore.

Contemporary half tan shagreen binding, faded spine with four raised bands ruled in blind, some rubbing to spine and joints, marbled paper boards, paste-paper endpapers and pastedowns, corners bumped.

Illustrated with figures in the text. 

First edition.

Publisher's full blue pebbled cloth binding, smooth spine lettered in gilt to the centre of the upper cover, double blind-ruled frames to covers, some discoloration to covers.

Leaves 2, 8, 12, 14, 16 and 18 have been interleaved.

No copies traced in the CCF or WorldCat. Extremely rare.

Founded in 1864, this Indo-British lodge was affiliated with the Order of Mark Master Masons, established in 1769, a society connected with Freemasonry.

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

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

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

Illustrated with two double-page plates outside the text.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rare first edition issued as an offprint from the Journal asiatique, no. 7.

Contemporary half aubergine calf binding with corners, smooth spine gilt with Romantic arabesque tools, minor rubbing to the spine, gilt garland frame to the marbled paper boards, orange paper endleaves and pastedowns, rubbed corners; a period binding.

Dampstaining affecting the first half of the volume, some foxing.

Concise manual of the Hanafi rite, one of the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence, the oldest and notably the one recognised as official within the Ottoman Empire.

Antoine-Joseph Du Caurroy (1775–1853) served as an interpreter at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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

Only one copy recorded in the CCF (Rennes).

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

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

Rare first edition.

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

A single copy recorded in the CCF (BnF).

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

Some spotting to the endpapers.

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

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

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

First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Revue de l'Orient, de l'Algérie et des colonies, published in the February 1857 issue.

According to the CCFr, copies are recorded only at the BnF, the BULAC and the Académie de médecine.

Our copy is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, with plain blue temporary paper covers, unopened.

Some foxing.

This pamphlet surveys all the animals mentioned in the Quranic surahs.

The author, Antoine-Paulin Pihan (1810-1879), who was proficient in Arabic, Turkish and Persian, was merely a proofreader in the Oriental typography department of the Imprimerie Impériale. Yet the number of...

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

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

Paris, Teissier et Cie, undated [circa 1868-1870]. Folio, 38 leaves mounted on guards, 32.5 x 49.5 cm.

An exceptionally rare collection, probably unique in this form, comprising thirty-eight proofs and working states of lithographed Masonic plates, most designed to be viewed across a double page. Numbered in red pencil from 1 to 40 in a discontinuous sequence including several bis plates. Caillet and Dorbon describe the Rameau d'or d'Éleusis, to which...

First edition of this Roman missal. Each text page within an engraved border containing multiple vignettes that change throughout the pages, after French manuscripts of the 15th century. Engraved title and 10 engravings in borders. The 5 chromolithographs may have been added, as they are not part of most copies. A frontispiece is sometimes mentioned, but the presence of a chromolithographic title with Curmer's name suggests they were added.

Contemporary full chocolate morocco Jansenist binding signed L. Curmer, in gold letters at the top of the first endpaper. Decorative gilt board-edges. All edges gilt. Scarlet silk endpapers with a monogram on the first endpaper. Light...

Rare first edition. Published in Avignon according to Barbier; however, J.-P. Perret records it as printed in Yverdon.
Contemporary full marbled and polished calf. Smooth spine gilt-tooled. Tobacco-colored morocco labels for title and volume numbers. Lacking head of volume I. Upper joint of volume II split at head. Volume number label on volume I rubbed. Two bumped corners on volume I. In volume II, faint waterstain from title page to p. 60. Otherwise, a clean and well-preserved copy. A good example overall.

A collection of four extremely rare first editions:
- Thuileur des trente-trois degrés de l'écossisme (1813), “a rare and sought-after work and one of the best thuileurs in existence...” (Caillet, I, 2910). With a frontispiece and 14 plates (one folding) as well as a large folding table at end;
- Récapitulation de toute la maçonnerie ou Description et explication de l'hiéroglyphe universel du maître des maîtres (1812) with two plate;
- l'Explication de la croix philosophique (1806) with a folding plate showing the eponymous cross;
- l'Explication de la pierre cubique (1806) with a folding plate describing the stone.
This copy is further enriched with a small insert...

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