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Histoire générale des cérémonies, moeurs, et coutumes religieuses

Offered by: Shapero Gallery

Description
PICART, BERNARD (ARTIST).
Histoire générale des cérémonies, moeurs, et coutumes religieuses de tous les Peuples du Monde.
Représentees en 243. figures dessinées de la main de Bernard Picard: avec des explications historiques, & curieuses; par M. l'Abbé Banier [...] & par M. l'Abbé Le Mascrier.
Stock Code 90296
Paris, Rollin Fils, 1741
£7,500
Fine, fresh example, attractively bound, of the most elaborate history of world religion published up to that time, profusely illustrated with more than 300 engravings.

Picart 'earned a place in the history of Jewish art by his realistic portrayal of Jewish religious rites. These constitute an invaluable record of Dutch Jewry in the early eighteenth century... [He] sought out Jews in the synagogue and in their homes in order to acquaint himself with their ceremonies. In his picture of a Passover celebration the artist himself can be seen, hatless, participating in a meal.' (Ency. Judaica, 13, 498). Other volumes cover Islam, the Americas, the Quakers and Hinduism in detail.

Despite condemnation from the Catholic church, the publication of this work was a resounding success. 'Ceremonies and customs prepared the ground for religious toleration amid seemingly unending religious conflict, and demonstrated the impact of the global on Western consciousness [...] as it shaped development of a modern, secular understanding of religion' (Hunt)

The present second edition is the first published in France (after Amsterdam), with a text much corrected and sometimes fully rewritten by Lemascrier, who is also the author of a group of dissertations on the same subject, included here for the first time.

Description
7 vols, folio (27 x 40 cm). Engraved frontispiece complete with 232 engraved plates including 32 folding, and 95 engravings in text, including head and tail pieces by Gravelot, titles printed in red and black with a repeated engraved vignette by Cochin; outer margin of 3 leaves in vol. 2 sometime reinforced. Contemporary calf, spines with raised bands gilt in compartments, red and orange morocco labels lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, red egdes; neat restoration to joints and head and foot of spines.

Bibliography
Brunet I, 1743; Sabin 4931; Cf. L. Hunt, The Book that Changed Europe: Picart & Bernard's Religious Ceremonies of the World (Harvard UP, 2010).

Stock ID:90296

More Information

Origin:	France
Period:	18th Century
Styles / Movements:	Traditional
Dealer Reference #:	90296
Incollect Reference #:	582199

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