1630 Scarce Latin Vellum Book - LACTANTIUS' Divine Institutes & The PHOENIX.
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Author: Lucius Coelius Firmianus LACTANTIUS; Jean de Tournes.
Title : Divinarum institutionum libri VII. De ira Dei lib. I. De opificio Dei lib. I. Epitome in libros suos, liber acephalus. Carmen de Phoenice : Se Resurrectione dominica : De passione Domini. Editio novissima, ac omnium emendatissima.
Language: Text in Latin.
Publisher: Genevae, Apud Ioan de Tournes, 1630.
Size : 5 " X 3.5 ".
Pages : 785 pages + Index.
Binding: Very good full vellum binding (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a removable protective mylar cover.
Content: Very Good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing or staining - as shown, notes of a previous owner on first endpaper - as shown).
Illustrations: Complete with the engraved portrait of Lactantius on the title page.
Estimate : (USD 600 - USD 650)
The book: Scarce early 17th-century edition of LACTANTIUS' Divine Institutes & his famous Poem, The PHOENIX, based on the myth of the phoenix from Oriental mythology.
The author: Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (c. 250 – c. 325) was an early Christian author who became an advisor to the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his religious policy as it developed, and a tutor to his son Crispus. His most important work is the Institutiones Divinae ("The Divine Institutes"), an apologetic treatise intended to establish the reasonableness and truth of Christianity to pagan critics. He is best known for his apologetic works, widely read during the Renaissance by humanists who called Lactantius the "Christian Cicero". Also widely attributed to Lactantius is the poem The Phoenix, which is based on the myth of the phoenix from Oriental mythology. Though the poem is not clearly Christian in its motifs, modern scholars have found some literary evidence in the text to suggest the author had a Christian interpretation of the eastern myth as a symbol of resurrection.