1681 Rare Latin French Book - Solomon Book of Proverbs from the Old Testament

Author: Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy.
Title: Les Proverbes de Salomon. Traduits en François, Avec une explication tirée des SS. Pères, & des Auteurs Ecclésiastiques.
Publisher: Paris, Chez Pierre Le Petit, Imprimeur & Libraire ordinaire du Roy, 1681.
Language: Text in Latin and French.
Size: 8" x 5.5".
Pages: 783 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good exquisite contemporary full mottled calf binding. Spine with five raised bands richly gilt in floral compartments, red morocco label (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. A beautifully preserved example.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing or staining - as shown, name (C. Husson, Cordelier à Nancy) and ink stamp on the first endpaper - as shown). 
Illustrations: Engraved frontispiece by G. Edelinck after Philippe de Champaigne depicting Solomon writing, with the Latin motto "Lingua hominis sed verba Dei". Decorative woodcut headpieces and historiated initials adorn the beginning of chapters and sections.

Estimate: (USD 300–350).

The book: A scarce and finely printed 17th-century bilingual edition of Les Proverbes de Salomon, featuring the Latin Vulgate text in parallel with Lemaistre de Sacy’s renowned French translation. This edition, printed by royal privilege, includes extensive theological commentary drawn from the Church Fathers and ecclesiastical authors, adding moral and spiritual depth to each proverb. A striking combination of visual richness and religious erudition, this quarto volume exemplifies the height of devotional scholarship in pre-Enlightenment France.

The author: Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy (1613–1684) was a key figure in the Port-Royal translation of the Bible into French and a leading voice of the Jansenist movement. Imprisoned in the Bastille for his beliefs, he nevertheless completed one of the most influential French versions of the Scriptures, lauded for its classical purity and spiritual clarity. His work helped shape devotional reading in France for more than a century.