£695.00
Du Peyrat (Guillaume). Traitté de l’Origine des Cardinaux du Saint Siège, et particulièrement des François. Avec deux Traittez curieux des Legats à Latere. Et une Relation exacte de leurs receptions, & des verifications de leurs facultez au Parlement de Paris, faites sous les Roys Louis XII, François I, Henry II, François II & Charles IX. Auquel est aussi joint le Traitté de Pise, &c. Cologne: chez Pierre ab Egmont, 1665.
An important seventeenth-century French study of the origins and history of the Cardinals of the Holy See, with particular attention to French cardinals and the relationship between the papacy, its legates and the French monarchy.
The volume contains several notable early manuscript inscriptions. Most strikingly, an inscription to the front states “par Guillaume du Peyrat, aumonier du roi de France” (“by Guillaume du Peyrat, chaplain to the King of France”), identifying the author and his royal ecclesiastical office. While the hand has not been authenticated as that of Du Peyrat himself, its presence provides an intriguing early association with the author.
Further manuscript provenance includes an “Ex libris” ownership inscription and an early bibliographical annotation referring to Fabricius’ Bibliographia Antiquaria and its 1760 edition, evidence that the volume was studied and researched by a previous owner.
Printed with handsome ornamental headpieces and decorative woodcut initials.
In a period full-calf binding with raised bands and traces of gilt spine decoration. Binding heavily worn and distressed, with substantial flaking and losses to the leather, exposed areas of the underlying binding structure and wear to the joints and extremities. Internally considerably better preserved, with age toning and scattered spotting and marks. A compelling unrestored seventeenth-century copy with significant manuscript evidence of its ownership and scholarly history.
Author: Guillaume du Peyrat
Year: 1665
Edition: Early Edition
Publisher: Pierre ab Egmont, Cologne
Language: French
This book sits at the intersection of religion and political power in seventeenth-century Europe.
Guillaume du Peyrat served as an ecclesiastic associated with the French royal establishment. His subject here was one of considerable political importance: the origins of the College of Cardinals and, particularly, the role played by French cardinals within the government of the Catholic Church.
The work goes considerably further than a simple history of the cardinalate. Du Peyrat examines papal legates a latere and their reception in France, including the verification of their authority by the Parlement of Paris under successive French kings — Louis XII, François I, Henri II, François II and Charles IX.
The manuscript evidence makes this particular copy especially evocative.
An early hand has written “par Guillaume du Peyrat, aumonier du roi de France” at the front of the volume. The inscription explicitly connects the book’s author with his position as chaplain to the King of France. It would require specialist comparison to determine whether the inscription could actually be in Du Peyrat’s hand, and no such claim is made here, but it is nevertheless a fascinating feature of this copy.
Another owner subsequently recorded bibliographical information from Fabricius’ Bibliographia Antiquaria, demonstrating that the book was being researched as an antiquarian object by the eighteenth or nineteenth century.
The result is not simply a book printed in 1665, but a volume carrying physical evidence of the people who owned, identified and studied it across succeeding centuries.
A particularly characterful seventeenth-century book on the machinery of power within the Catholic Church and its relationship with the French Crown.
Its appeal lies not only in its 1665 printing. The manuscript inscriptions give this individual copy its own history, most notably the early identification of Guillaume du Peyrat as “aumonier du roi de France” — chaplain to the King of France.
The possibility of an authorial association is intriguing, although deliberately left unattributed without handwriting authentication.
Combined with its period binding, ornamental printing, scholarly annotations and subject matter involving the papacy, French monarchy and College of Cardinals, this is an unusually atmospheric survival from seventeenth-century Europe.
