BOSSUET (Jacques-Bénigne). - Lot 19

BOSSUET (Jacques-Bénigne). Défense de l'Histoire des variations contre la Réponse de M. Basnage Ministre de Rotterdam. Paris, J. Anisson, Directeur de l'Imprimerie Royale, 1691. In-12, granite calf, spine decorated, red speckled edges (period binding). First edition of Bossuet's reply to the Protestant historian Jacques Basnage de Beauval (1653-1723), who criticized his Histoire des Variations des Églises Protestantes. This copy bears an Ex dono auctoris on the upper flyleaf. It belonged to Pierre Cureau de La Chambre (1640-1693), member of the Académie française, art lover and bibliophile: his signature (crossed out) appears on the title, followed by that of his nephew L. de Fretteville, who inherited the copy on his death (on the subject of books belonging to the Cureau de la Chambre family, see Isabelle de Conihout's study in Le Livre et l'Historien, 1997). From the Desnos and Henry Édouard Weber libraries, with their respective bookplates. Hinges, headpieces and corners restored.