1696 Rare Latin French Book - Tobie, Judith and Esther from the Old Testament

Author: Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy.
Title: Tobie, Judith et Esther, traduits en François, avec une Explication tirée des SS. Pères & des Auteurs Ecclésiastiques.
Publisher: Paris, Chez Guillaume Desprez, 1696.
Language: Text in French and Latin.
Size: 8 x 5.5 inches.
Pages: 215, 217, 247 pages, and Table of Contents.
Binding: Attractive and very good contemporary full calf leather binding, spine with raised bands, richly gilt compartments, and a red morocco label titled “TOBIE IVDITH ESTHER.” (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing or staining - as shown, small ink stamp on the second blank page - as shown). Parallel French and Latin texts in two columns.
Illustrations: Illustrated with three fine full-page engraved chapter headpieces (for Tobie, Judith, and Esther), along with ornate decorative initials and typographic ornaments. These woodcut vignettes are crisp and well-preserved.

The book: A rare and elegant 17th-century Parisian edition of Tobie, Judith et Esther, translated into French by the celebrated Port-Royal scholar Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy. These three books—deuterocanonical in the Catholic tradition—are accompanied by theological commentary drawn from the Church Fathers and ecclesiastical authors. Printed with royal approbation (“Avec Approbations & Privilège de Sa Majesté”), this edition represents both a devotional and scholarly enterprise at a time when vernacular Scripture was a matter of rigorous ecclesiastical control. The vivid woodcut illustrations introducing each book, coupled with the scholarly apparatus, make this edition particularly attractive to collectors of sacred texts, Catholic theology, and early French Bibles.

The author: Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy (1613–1684) was a prominent theologian and Bible translator associated with the Jansenist movement and the Port-Royal Abbey. He is best known for his French Bible translation (La Bible de Port-Royal), which greatly influenced Catholic vernacular biblical literature in France. Despite ecclesiastical controversies surrounding Jansenism, his work gained wide recognition and enduring influence.