BARONIO, Cesare

BARONIO, Cesare [BARONIUS, Caesar]; BEAUVAU, Mgr de; SPONDE, Henri de. Annales ecclesiastici ex XII tomis Caesaris Baronii,… in epitomen redacti, opera Henrici Spondani,…

 

 

Paris (Lutetiae Parisiorum): sumptibus Dionysii de La Nouee : Excudebat Dionysius Langlaeus, 1613

 

 

 

£ 1,200

 

Folio. FIRST EDITION [24], 1159, [70], [2 bl.] pp.; a6 e6 A-Z6 Aa-Zz6 Aaa-Zzz6 AAaa-ZZzz6 AAAaa-DDDdd6 EEEee4 A-M6. Engraved title page; full-page engraved author’s portrait; woodcut decorations throughout; historiated and floriated initials. With Index and Errata Corrige. Text in two columns; in Latin; Roman and Italic type. Slight yellowing and foxing. Vellum binding with blind-stamped tooled decoration on covers; manuscript title on spine and on lower edge. Corners slightly bumped; strain on bottom hinge of spine; slight wear and staining on boards. Overall, a very good and rare copy.

 

 

Bibliography: Olschki, Theologia, 999

 

 

This book contains the Annales Ecclesiastici (full title Annales ecclesiastici a Christo nato ad annum 1198) which was first published between 1588 and 1607 and consisting of twelve folio volumes. It is a history of the first 12 centuries of the Christian Church and it was written by the Italian cardinal Caesar Baronius (1538 – 1607). Baronius is best known for this work, which was undertaken at the request of Philip Neri as an answer to the anti-Catholic history, the Magdeburg Centuries.

 

 

In the engraved title page are depicted, against a classical architectural background, St Peter and St Paul (characterised by their typical attributes: the keys and the book and the sword) standing on two columns decorated by cornucopias and small putti. The Virgin and Child are depicted above the Saints inside a stemma held by two winged angels. At the feet of the Saints is represented a personification of the Church, holding a cross and papal regalia, with the chained personifications of Heresy (on the left) as an old woman with sagging breasts holding two snakes, and Paganism (on the right), in the guise a man in roman military costume.

 

 

The author is depicted, in a separate full-page engraving, while at work in in his study, surrounded by books and with a window open on the Italian countryside and a church, possibly Santa Maria in Vallicella – where Baronius lectured for three decades and where he died and where he is now buried.