Paraphrase de l'Ecclesiaste, avec de remarques (A Paraphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes, with Commentary) [bound with:] Le Livre de Job, selon la Vulgate, paraphrasé, avec des remarques
Paris: Rollin, [1729]. First edition. Hardcover. Two works, jointly issued, 12mo (16.2 cm x 9.9 cm): [24], 102, [2]; [32] 311 [9, table, approbation and errata]pp. Each work with full, dated title-page. Roman, italic and Hebrew letter; printed side-glosses in Latin; woodcut decorations and initials. Contemporary green morocco, covers and spine elaborately tooled in gilt, red morocco gilt label, marbled pastedowns and endleaves, all edges gilt. A touch of rubbing at the extremities, else fine copies, handsomely bound.
First editions of these French-language paraphrases of the books of Ecclesiastes and Job. It includes an essay on the urim and thummim, the Hebrew terms first appearing in the biblical book of Exodus that had been (and are) interpreted to refer to elements of the breastplate of the High Priest. Hardouin argues that the words refer to nothing material and solid and mean ‘lights’ and ‘perfections’. The text of the Latin Vulgate is printed at the side-margins alongside Hardouin’s French-language versions of the biblical texts, with notes in French below. The chapters of Ecclesiastes also have French-language introductions. The French Jesuit Hardouin (1646-1729), who was the son of a bookseller, is a very interesting scholar because he developed an extreme view on literary forgery. He held for example that most of the Greco-Roman classics had been written in the thirteenth century. Fine. Item #49183
References: Conlon 29: 531; 530. De Backer & Sommervogel 4:104, nos. 85; 86. Uncommon in libraries of mainland Europe, OCLC shows no copies outside.
Price: $750.00