Prize Pauline Commentaries
GEORGES D’AMIENS.
Trina Pauli theologia positiva, moralis, mystica seu omnigena in universas apostoli epistolas commentaria. Exegetica, tropologica, anagogica. Auctore P. Georgio Ambianate, Minorita Capucino Parisiis apud suos professore theologo. Paris, ‘apud viduam et Dionysium Thierry’, 1659.
Folio, pp. [12], 718, [28, index]; full-page copper-engraving of St Paul to verso of half-title, title in red and black with large copper-engraved view of Paris, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, text in two columns; two leaves of quire 4O browned, otherwise a very good copy in eighteenth-century sheep, spine in compartments lettered and decorated in gilt, marbled edges; boards slightly bowed, short split at foot of upper joint, two small wormholes at foot of spine, some wear to corners and edges; printed prize leaf of the Collège d’Harcourt dated 1734 completed in manuscript and with red wax seal tipped onto half-title, gilt arms of the Collège to boards, alternating gilt initials ‘C’ and ‘H’ to spine compartments, bookplates of the Bibliothèque du Château du Plessix, Colonel Philippe Millon, and Y. Durand-Noël to front endpapers.
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Trina Pauli theologia positiva, moralis, mystica seu omnigena in universas apostoli epistolas commentaria. Exegetica, tropologica, anagogica. Auctore P. Georgio Ambianate, Minorita Capucino Parisiis apud suos professore theologo.
First edition of these commentaries on the letters of St Paul by the Capuchin friar Georges d’Amiens (d. 1657), published posthumously by Marie Thierry with her son Denis, this a prize copy awarded by the Collège d’Harcourt. Georges enjoyed a reputation as an outstanding preacher in Paris, and his remarkable Pauline commentaries were published for use by his fellow preachers. Although always intended to be completed in three volumes, the second and third were not printed until 1664. He is also known for his edition of the works of Tertullian.
Marie Thierry (née Regnault or Renault) succeeded her printer-publisher husband Denis I upon his death in 1657, working in association with their son Denis II until at least 1676, their shop on the rue Saint-Jacques bearing, appropriately enough, the sign of Saint Denis. This is a truly handsome publication with its portrait of St Paul by Nicolas Regnesson (d. 1670) and remarkable title-page device comprising a view of Paris with an inset of Saint Denis holding his severed head. Marie’s other publications included works on mental prayer, Jansenism, plague, and the Eucharist.
Provenance:
This copy was awarded by the Collège d’Harcourt to Joachim Pelagius de la Marchée in 1734 as a prize for translating Latin into French. The Collège was founded in Paris in 1280 and renamed the Lycée Saint-Louis in the early nineteenth century. It can boast an extraordinary roll call of famous alumni, those from the eighteenth century including Montesquieu and Denis Diderot.