ROQUES, Pierre.
Le vray pietisme ou traité, dans lequel on explique la nature & les éffets de la piété; la juste étendue du renoncement au monde; où l'on remonte à la source générale du peu de vertu qu'il y a entre les Chrétiens, où l'on indique les moyens d'acquérir une piété solide; & où l'on fait connoître comment la piété nous dispose à l'égard de ceux qui ne pensent pas comme nous en matière de religion.
Basle, Jean Brandmuller, 1731. 4to. With engraved frontispiece portrait of the author by F.A. Störcklein. Contemporary vellum, with large embroidered coat of arms on front board (17.5 x 15.5 x 1 cm), with silver and gold thread. 7, [1 blank], [12], 596, 70, [1], [1 blank] pp.
€ 7,500
First edition of the main work of Pierre Roques (1685-1748), French Protestant minister in Basel. It is a defence of a "true pietism", i.e. a rational and tolerant form of piety, against liberalism on the one hand and "enthusiasm" on the other. It was translated into German in 1748.
The book is bound in vellum, with an embroidered double coat of arms mounted on the front board. The arms are of Eusèbe-Jacques Chaspoux, marquis de Verneuil (1695-1747) and his wife Louise Françoise Bigres (d. shortly after 1747), the marchioness de Verneuil. Chaspoux de Verneuil was a high-ranking courtier: "the doyen des sécretaires de la chambre du Roi et introducteur des ambassadeurs". His castle is in Verneuil-sur-Indre (Dept. Indre et Loire, arrond. Loches) and still exists. His coat of arms: a golden pelican with its two chicks on an azure field with three golden crescents on a red field; hers: a lion before a golden fence with three roosters on an azure field above.
Restored tear in the portrait, but the book otherwise in very good condition. The embroidered arms has
survived surprisingly well considering its position on the front board, but has a few loose threads and some damage to the arms. J. van den Berg, "Le vray piétisme: Die aufgeklärte Frommigkeit des Basler Pfarrers Pierre Roques", in: Zwingliana 16/7 (1983), pp. 35-53; Olivier, Manuel de l'amateur de reliures armoriées françaises, pl. 2200.
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