Lot Details
Lot 98
EUSEBIUS CAESARIENSIS, PAMPHILIUS. Evangelica praeparatio libri XV.
Bound with: [Idem]. Evangelicae demonstrationis libri X. Paris: Robert Estienne, 1544 and 1545. Two volumes bound as one, the editio princeps of each work. Full dark brown crushed levant by The French Binders tooled in blind and gilt, spine in six compartments, all edges gilt on the rough. 13 x 8 1/2 inches (33 x 21.5 cm); 498, [2] pp.; 318, [2] pp. The binding in fine condition, the text with a few extremely minor marginal stains, a few slightly spotted leaves but a fresh example overall, with full margins. The Charles Kalbfleisch copy, with his book-label (from old pencil notes at the rear, purchased from the Chiswick Book Shop in 1937 and bound 1939).
The Praeparatio evangelica of Eusebius (the "Preparation for the Gospel"), is a detailed argument in support of the excellence of Christianity over all over religions, and was intended as a tool for the conversion of pagans. To this end, it draws on the work of other writers, historians and philosophers, whose work (in many instances) is not preserved elsewhere. Portions of Pyrrho of Elis's translation of the Buddhist Three Marks of Existence are reprinted here, for example, along with much else of first importance. The Evangelicae demonstrationis elaborates the arguments of the first work.
The Estienne edition is a monument of Greek typography, using the first "grecs du roi" cut by Claude Garamond, with superb initials and headpieces that may be by Geoffrey Tory. Adams E-1087, 1082; Mortimer French 220; Schreiber Estiennes 78.
C The Julius and Theodore Cohn Library
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