Full Calf
1738
by Guérin, Mlle.
1738. Full Calf. Very Good. 4to. 24.5 by 18.5 cm. 316 pp. 17 lines of handwriting per page generally. Relating pieces of Jewish "history" from the Creation to Simon and the Maccabees. Fluidly, concisely written, with necessarily many conflations and reductions while maintaining a narrative momentum. Some of the interest in the manuscript lies in its vernacular recapitulation of Biblical stories, and also of Flavius Josephus, and its evidence of strong religious proclivities and attitudes even as the Enlightenment was surging all around. At the end of the manuscript are appended two apocryphal documents relating to Jesus. The first (in three pages),'Tresor admirable. de la sentence de condamnation prononcee contre [notre] Seigneur Jesus christ,' our manuscript tells us, was discovered in a house in Aquila in the Kingdom of Naples in 1548 and purports to be the sentence of condemnation against Jesus. [A text of this is found in Fabricius' Codex Apocrapha, Novi Testamenti III, 489 fol. and a translation is found in Ward's Ancient Lowly]. There were editions of this apocryphal document published in 1581, 1621, and in 1839. It has received some notice along with a shorter version, also 'found' in Aquila in 1820. There are numerous divergences about the discovery of this document, when it was discovered, what it was written on, etc. But it seems obvious it is a forgery. The second addition is a letter supposedly by Petrus [Publius] Lentulus proconsul in Jerusalem and is also three pages. The letter of Lentulus first appeared in print in 1474 in an edition of Ludolph the Carthusian. It is thought to be of Greek origin and was translated into Latin in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. It is our sense that this manuscript was intended for publication but never was. The writer's hand is exceptionally neat and so even without calligraphy per se or other decorative frills, this is a beautiful manuscript. We do not have any information on Mlle. Guerin, although we would note that there was a well-known courtesan, author and hostess of a literary salon in Paris at the time by the name of Claudine Alexandrine Guérin de Tencin (1682 - 1749). Condition: joints rubbed. Spine has some dryness, and chips by extremities. Other leather abrasions. Still, a handsome contemporary French full calf binding with raised bands, and gilt decoration in spine compartments.
(Inventory #: 006009)