PLANTAVIT DE LA PAUSE (Jean)

Lot 63
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Estimation :
3000 - 4000 EUR
PLANTAVIT DE LA PAUSE (Jean)
Florilegium Rabbinicum. Complectens praecipuas veterum Rabbinorum sententias, versione Latina & Scholiis, ubi opus est, illustratas. Lodève, Arnauld Colomiez, 1643 [at the end: 1644]. In-folio, half brown calf, spine decorated, red title-piece (modern pastiche binding). Very rare private printing from Lodève. First edition, illustrated with a beautiful allegorical title and a portrait of the author at the age of 64, both engraved on copper by Jean Baron. Collection of maxims taken from the Talmud and other books of the rabbis, with the Hebrew text accompanied by the Latin translation and notes. The work ends with a translation of 600 maxims from Greek and Latin authors, which is an early work of the author. Plantavit de La Pause (1579-1651) was one of the most illustrious bishops of Lodève in Languedoc. He was versed in the Semitic languages, of which he knew almost all, and he was a most learned orientalist. It was in Lodève that the learned prelate published his great works of public exegesis. He set up a printing press at his own expense, with polyglot typefaces, in his studious retreat of Prémarlet [...]. It was there that Arnaud Colomiez, a skilled printer who had arrived from Toulouse with his presses, type and workers, published his works under the prelate's direction. (Cf. Azais, "Un ancien maître du collège des arts de Nîmes devenu évêque de Lodève" in Bulletin du Comité de l'art chrétien, 1881; and Ernest Martin, Histoire de la ville de Lodève, 1900). Plantavit de La Pause's works were the first books printed in Lodève, and there is no trace of a printing press in the town after his death, until the Revolution (cf. Deschamps, col. 730).
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