EUSEBIUS.
L[']histoire ecclesiastique ..., translatee de Latin en Fra[n]coys, par Messire Claude de Seyssel, Evesque lors de Marseille, & depuis Archevesque de Thurin.
Antwerp, Maarten de Keyser, 1533 (colophon: 17 April). 8vo. With a woodcut border on the title-page, assembled from 4 blocks (that at the foot with De Keyser's printer's device), about 10 woodcut decorated initials plus about 10 repeats (2 gothic series and 2 roman series). Set in three sizes of bastarda type with textura initials. Contemporary Flemish blind panel-stamped calf, each board with the same panel and double and single fillets, a triple fillet in the panel stamp separating the inner and outer panel. The inner is an acorn cresting panel with 4 1/2 acorns on each side and the flowers not attached to the acorns, remnants of leather ties. [12], "297" [= 299], [1] ll.
€ 7,500
Rare second (first Antwerp) edition of Claude de Seyssel's French translation of Eusebius's chronological church history, first published by Geofroy Tory in Paris in 1532. Written in Greek in the 4th century, Eusebius drew on a wide variety of sources, recording much valuable historical information that would otherwise have been lost. Seyssel's translation was based on Rufinus's Latin rendering of 401 AD.
The three bastarda types are Vervliet B1, B2 and B5, all thought to have been cut by De Keyser himself. He had used the smallest, here in the main text (72.5 mm/20 lines or 10.5 point) since 1527 or 1530, but the two larger ones (94 mm or 14 point and about 180 mm or 26 point) make their first known appearance in the present book, where they are crisply printed from freshly cast type. Vervliet notes the middle size only from 1534, but it was used to set 7 lines on the present title-page and a line or two opening the first four chapters.
The central panel of the panel stamp on the binding resembles those cited in Foot, Goldschmidt, Oldham and to a lesser degree Sorgeloos/Speeckaert, all dated ca. 1527-ca. 1534, but their outer panels are all similar to each other and differ greatly from the present example. We have found nothing similar to the present outer panel in the literature.
With owners' entries on front pastedown: "SGS MGS/H. Spanofsky" dated 1555 and "Gott begnadt Hoffnung/Christ. Tenngler zum/Ramblsperg und Schaltenstain" (in Bavaria) dated 1563. In very good condition internally. The binding slightly chafed, cracks in the spine and hinges and head of spine chipped, but most of both panel stamps remains well preserved. Rare Antwerp edition of an important ecclesiastical history, also important for the printing types and panel-stamped binding. Nijhoff & Kronenberg 884; Pettegree & Valsby, Netherlandish books, 11968; USTC 7514; for panel stamps with a similar inner panel: Foot, Henry Davis Gift 293; Goldschmidt 134; Oldham, Blind panels of English binders, Ac.3; Sorgeloos/Spreekaert, Quatre siècles de reliure III, 5.
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