BÈZE (Théodore de). Lot n° 8

Les Vrais pourtraits des hommes illustres en piété et doctrine, du travail dont Dieu s'est servi en ces derniers temps, pour remettre sus la vraie Religion en divers pays de la Chrestienté. [Geneva], Jean de Laon, 1581. In-4, black morocco, triple gilt fillet, central coat of arms, spine decorated with the same repeated numeral, chocolate brown moire lining and endpapers, smooth edges (Honegger). First French edition of the Icones, translated by the senlisian pastor and polygrapher Simon Goulart. It is illustrated with 48 portraits of reformers in beautiful frames, including ten new ones compared to the original Latin edition of 1580, and 44 beautiful emblems, all wood-engraved. There were two issues of this edition, both with the same number of pages and the same illustration, but with or without the name of Geneva in the address on the title page: on this copy, the unprinted name of the town has been added to the typesetter. Washed copy, bound in the collector's cipher. Bookplate of Charles-Louis Frossard (1827-1902), of Nîmes, pastor of the Reformed Church of France and archivist of the General Synod (brought back from the old binding). A restored crack to one leaf, and minor restorations to the margin of the last leaf. J. P. Barbier-Mueller, IV-1, n°36. - Brun, p. 123. - N. Ducimetière, Mignonne..., n°102. - GLN-2853. - Landwehr, Romanic, n°159-159a. - Diane Barbier-Mueller, Inventaire..., no. 74.