March II 2021 Catalogue

B a u m a n R a r e B o o k s F a i t h 2 0 2 1 16 Eight-Volume Folio Latin Translation Of Calmet’s Biblical Commentaries, 1734-35, With 20 Full-Page Engravings And Five Folding Maps, In Contemporary Blind-Tooled And Clasped Bindings 16. CALMET, Don Augustin. Commentarium Literale in Omnes ac Singulos tum Veteris cum Novi Testamenti Libros. Augsburg, 1734-35. Eight volumes. Thick folio, contemporary full white leather over wooden boards, brass furniture. $3500. Click for More Info Third Latin translation of the Commentaire of Dom Augustin Calmet—“usually recognized as the greatest Roman Catholic biblical scholar of the 18th century”—illustrated with 20 full-page engravings by Johann-Gottfried Kolb and A. Ehman as well as five folding maps by P. Starckman (after Pierre Moullart-Sanson), distinguished in contemporary clasped bindings. Calmet, a French Benedictine monk, began gatheringmaterial for what would become his monumental commentary on the Bible in 1696. The first of an eventual 23 quarto volumes appeared in Paris in 1707, entitled Commentaire littéral sur tous les livres de l’Ancien et du Nouveau Testament . “The work inaugurated a new method of Biblical exegesis… [I]ts author very sensibly departed from the general custom of giving an allegorical (mystical) and tropological (moral) interpretation besides the literal, and confined himself to the latter” ( Catholic Encyclopedia ). This is the third Latin edition (Augsburg, 1734-35). Early owner signature and embossed seal of ownership on title pages. Occasional marginalia. Scattered light foxing, occasional light dampstaining, expert repairs to two folding maps, light age-wear to contemporary bindings, tiny wormholes to some covers, without top catch-pin on Volume V. An exceptional and venerable set of a work seldom found complete and in contemporary bindings.