Description
by LACTANTIUS
Paris; 1551
Rare French translation by Rene Fame of the main work of the early Christian author Lactantius (240-320), an apologetic treatise against pagan beliefs.
Illustrated with 179 woodcuts in-text.
Size 3 by 4 1/4
[32]-774-[2 bl.] pp.
Full calf, triple gilt-ruled covers, gilt-ornamental flat spine, red edges
Some wear of binding. Minor toning and foxing, cut short at upper margin
- Ref. Pettegree (FB) 32428. - Not in BP16 (other ed.), STC French, Adams.
Text in French=
Lucius Caecilius Firmianus signo Lactantius (c. 250 – c. 325) was an early Christian author who became an advisor to Roman emperor Constantine I, guiding his Christian religious policy in its initial stages of emergence, and a tutor to his son Crispus.
His most important work is the Institutiones Divinae (The Divine Institutes), an apologetic treatise intended to establish the reasonableness and truth of Christianity to pagan critics.
He is best known for his apologetic works, widely read during the Renaissance by humanists, who called Lactantius the Christian Cicero. Also often attributed to Lactantius is the poem The Phoenix, which is based on the myth of the phoenix from Egypt and Arabia. Though the poem is not clearly Christian in its motifs, modern scholars have found some literary evidence in the text to suggest the author had a Christian interpretation of the eastern myth as a symbol of resurrection.
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1551 TREATISE AGAINST PAGAN BELIEFS LACTANTIUS antique ILLUSTRATED 179 WOODCUTS
Estimate $1,200-$1,500
Starting Price
$500
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Ink of Ages: 15th-19th Century Antique Books
Mar 26, 2026 6:00 PM EDTNew York, NY, United States
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