BAUMAN RARE BOOKS 50 “One Of The Few Books That Have Profoundly Affected The Course Of History” 61CALVIN, John. The Institution of Christian Religion. London, 1634. Folio (7-1/2 by 11 inches), 19th-century full olive calf gilt. $7500 1634 edition of Calvin’s magnum opus. John T. McNeill argued that Calvin’s Institutes is ‘one of the few books that have profoundly affected the course of history’” (Haykin, 29). His first theological publication, “[Its] most important role, despite Calvin’s authoritarian influence, was to support the movement for liberty and independence in many parts of the world... Calvinism exerted considerable influence on the recognition of the liberal rights of the individual as eventually expressed in the Constitution of the United States of America” (PMM 65; emphasis added). First published in English in 1561 after the 1559 Geneva edition. Text with occasional marginal wormholing, not affecting text, marginal faint dampstain to last few leaves of Tables, one small burn mark affecting a few letters on FF2. Beautifully bound. “The Most Human Of All Books…” 62AURELIUS, Marcus. The Roman Emperor, His Meditations Concerning Himselfe. London, 1900. Octavo, contemporary full russet morocco gilt. $4500 Finely printed edition of one of the world’s great classics, using the 17thcentury first English translation by Meric Casaubon, beautifully bound by Bayntun-Riviere. The Meditations have been considered by many “one of the great books of all time… [and as] the most human of all books” (Britannica). Wisdom, justice, fortitude and temperance are the qualities that Aurelius, stoic and practical moralist, identifies as most essential for co-existence; his writings represent an early and influential philosophy of humanism. This translation by Meric Casaubon (son of the great scholar Isaac Casaubon), first published in 1634, is the first directly into English; Casaubon’s elegant and scholarly translation was still being reprinted well into the 20th century. A few instances of faint foxing to text, binding beautiful and fine.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDg3OTM=