Author: Fleury, Claude.
Title: Histoire ecclésiastique par M. Fleury, Prêtre, Prieur d'Argenteüil, & confesseur du Roy (vols. I-XX); [FOLLOWED BY:] Histoire ecclésiastique pour servir de continuation à celle de Monsieur l'Abbé Fleury (With editors a.o. C.P. Goujet, J.C. Fabre, A. de Cruce, O. Vidal) (vols. XXI-XXXVI); [FOLLOWED BY:] Table générale des matières contenues dans les XXXVI volumes de l'histoire ecclésiastique de M. Fleury & du P. Fabre (by L.E. Rondet) (Vol. XXXVII)
Description: Very rare complete 4to edition (with the index volume) of Fleury's Histoire Ecclésiastique in nice full calf contemporary uniform bindings. The work was made available at the time in a 12mo and an exclusive 4to format, 25x20 cm (Cf. the interesting small bookseller's catalog bound in vol. XXV). Volumes I-XX are all published in Paris, by P. G. le Mercier, J. Desaint & Ch. Saillant, J.Th Herissant, L. Durand and Le Prieur in 1750 or 1751; The continuation consists of volumes with imprints by them and Paris publishers P.F. Emery, Cl. Saugrain; G. Martin, J.-B. Coignard, P.-J. Mariette, H.-L. Guerin; P.A. Martin in various years from 1726 upto 1751; The table was published in Paris by J. Desaint & Ch. Saillant, J. Th. Herissant and L. Durand in 1758. As sets found in libraries are invariably mixed as concerns imprint and publication date, ours is remarkably homogenuous: Volumes 1-20 are in the 3rd edition in 4to, as well as vol. 31-34; volumes 21-30, 35 and 36 are from the first 4to edition; Volume 37 with the table which is nearly always lacking, is in first edition. (cf. Graesse, Vol. 2, p.596). The set was compiled at the time, probably just after 1751 as can be inferred from the very nice comparable contemporary full calf bindings with raised bands and the identical richly gilt decorated spines; the table from 1758 is also in contemporary full calf binding with raised bands and variant but matching gilt decoration. All volumes have marbled endpapers, wide margins and red edges; There is a very nice small engraving on p. 1 of each volume depicting a scene of the history of the Church dealt with in that particular volume. They are done by a.o. Guénard and Scotin, Bacquoy, Le Bas and Cochin all after Seb. Le Clerc (vol. xxi: Jan Hus at the stake), There are some decorated initals, head- and tailpieces and engraved vignettes on title-pages. All volumes have an index whether in or out of the text.(37x) (Detailed collation of each volume on request) Mailorder only - Alleen verzending mogelijk. Book condition : very good. - Claude Fleury (1640-1723), educator, historian, jurist and cleric was also royal tutor and immortel of the Académie Française. Before taking orders he was one of the most brilliant lawyers of the Parlement de Paris and for sixteen years tutor of the Dukes of Bourgogne, Anjou and Berry, grandsons of Louis XV. Among his numerous works on French and ecclesiastical law, the most important is his Histoire ecclésiastique, a thorough theological, historical, and anecdotal chronicle of the Catholic Church from the time of the Evangelists to 1595. It was highly praised by La Harpe and Voltaire who acclaimed that it was the best history of Christianity ever written. Fleury worked on it the last thirty-five years of his life and it was published in 20 volumes from 1691 to 1720. A 21st volume was composed but never published (Niceron). Fleury prefaced 8 volumes with discourses called by Voltaire 'almost philosophical', and it is supposed that the discourse on the age of reformation by Goujet (1697-1767) in vol. 33 of the continuation by Jean-Claude Fabre was prepared in outline by him (Wanner, p. 24). In view of the crisis in seventeenth-century historical scholarship Fleury's Magnum Opus becomes all the more impressive. This crisis, the failure of historians to interpret the past correctly (Hazard), was met by Fleury with rigorous principles of scholarship which initiated a new tradition of critical analysis, sound documentation and precise, clear and forthright style (Wanner). Fleury was in contact with brilliant thinkers and scholars like Bossuet and De Lamoignon, and worked closely with Fénelon on a day by day basis over a period of many years. The same scientific method was followed by the editors of the continuation who consulted a.o. Mariana. L'Histoire ecclesiastique de Fleury est un ouvrage bien ecrit et que recommande son impartialite: sous ce double rapport il merite d'etre place dans toute bibliotheque un peu volumineuse. --Brunet II, p. 1291. L Histoire ecclésiastique est un travail immense où l on trouve plus que de l érudition ; elle est écrite avec précaution, mais avec critique et bonne foi. (de Barante). This set has been very well preserved. Of the more than 2500 quires published in over 25 years we found only in vol. II 4 quires missing. The volumes are generally nice and clean internally. They have a small ex-libris on first endpaper and only minor wear to capitals, edges and corners. Detailed desciption of the condition of each volume and picture of the set on request. Cf. DThC VI, 21vv.; LThK IV, 167v.; RGG II, 978.; Wanner, R.E., Claude Fleury (1640-1723) as an educational historiographer and thinker, The Hague, Nijhoff, 1975.

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