Sweet-Smelling Whales, God’s Fingers, and an Army of Drunks
BESSE, Pierre de.
Conceptions theologiques sur tous les dimanches de l’année, preschées en divers lieux par Me Pierre de Besse … À Monseigneur le reverendissime Cardinal du Perron. Tome premier. Paris, Nicolas du Fossé, 1609.
[bound with:]
—. La royale prestrise c’est à dire des excellences, des qualites requises, et des choses defendues aux prestres … À Monsieur Deheere doyen de St Aignan d’Orleans. Paris, Nicolas du Fossé, 1610.Two works in one vol., 8vo, pp. [24], 1050, [70]; [64], 724 (i.e. 726), [48], [2, blank]; both works with engraved title-pages by L. Gaultier and engraved portraits of the dedicatees, woodcut initials and headpieces; chip to fore-edge of 3G4 of first work, marginal paperflaw to 2M2 of second work touching side note, some marginal dampstaining, some light toning and foxing, occasional other small marks, overall very good copies; bound in seventeenth-century calf, covers with double gilt fillet border and gilt centrepiece of the Instruments of the Passion, five raised bands to spine, one compartment lettered in gilt ‘Dimanches et Prestrisse D. B.’, the other compartments with alternating gilt ‘IHS’ and ‘MA’ devices; some losses to spine, upper joint split, wear to corners and edges; ownership inscriptions to first title ‘Pierre Mazeau’ (rubbed; also to front pastedown and p. [24]) and ‘Elie Le mineur’, nineteenth-century bookplate of René Fage; marginal marks and occasional words picked out in a seventeenth-century hand.
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Conceptions theologiques sur tous les dimanches de l’année, preschées en divers lieux par Me Pierre de Besse … À Monseigneur le reverendissime Cardinal du Perron. Tome premier.
Very rare editions of two works by the noted French priest and preacher Pierre de Besse (1567–1639), in a contemporary devotional binding.
After obtaining his doctorate in theology from the university of Paris, Besse quickly gained fame as a preacher, reaching the heights of prédicateur to the Prince de Condé and to King Louis XIII. His sermons and writings enjoyed a great vogue, running through numerous editions and translations.
The first work here contains twenty-four sermons running from Trinity Sunday to the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost. The topics covered range from Adam’s clothes, the adoration of images, and sweet-smelling whales, to bad company, God’s fingers, evil people’s prayers, and an army of drunks. Flatterers are compared to war trumpets, mankind to fish, and defamers to Cerberus. Small wonder people enjoyed hearing Besse preach. A second tome appeared in 1611. In the second work, Besse turns to the priesthood, examining, in four parts, the priestly office, the internal and external ‘perfections’ required of priests, and what they should at all costs avoid – no drunkenness and gluttony, no fighting or carrying of arms, no lewdness or swearing, etc.
The binding bears a stamp of the Arma Christi to the covers, while the spine carries repeated symbols for the names of Jesus and Mary.
I: USTC 6000791; no copies traced in the UK and only one in the US (Brigham Young University). II: USTC 6018002; only one copy recorded in the UK (BL) and none in the US.