GODEAU, Antoine, Bishop of Grasse.
Paraphrase sur l’epistre [– les epistres] de Saint Paul aux Romains [– aux Corinthiens; – aux Galates, Ephesiens, Philipiens, Colossiens; – aux Thessaloniciens, a Timothee, a Tite, a Philemon; – aux Hebreux] … nouvelle edition, reveüe et corrigée [– Paraphrase sur les epistres canoniques]. Paris, widow Jean Camusat [Denise de Courbes], 1641 [– 1640].
Six vols, 12mo in 8s and 4s, Romans: pp. [xxiv], 264, Corinthians: pp. 96, ’95–267’ (i.e. 97–269), [1 (blank)], 167–168 (P1 cancellans), Galatians: pp. 211, [5], Thessalonians: pp. 200, [4], Hebrews: pp. 60, 74, [8], Catholic: pp. [xxxv], [1 (blank)], 3–221, [7]; each title-page copper-engraved, woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces, typographic ornaments; some inoffensive browning, occasional light staining, small marginal paper-flaw to Corinthians D4, a few titles very slightly trimmed at head; uniformly bound in contemporary red morocco, boards panelled in gilt, spines gilt in compartments and lettered directly in gilt, edges gilt, marbled pastedowns; very slightly rubbed at extremities, but an excellent set.
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Paraphrase sur l’epistre [– les epistres] de Saint Paul aux Romains [– aux Corinthiens; – aux Galates, Ephesiens, Philipiens, Colossiens; – aux Thessaloniciens, a Timothee, a Tite, a Philemon; – aux Hebreux] … nouvelle edition, reveüe et corrigée [– Paraphrase sur les epistres canoniques].
Six Biblical paraphrases by Bishop Godeau, each rare in its own right, together forming a complete paraphrase of the Epistles, printed by the recently widowed Denise de Courbes with attractive engraved titles and handsomely bound in red morocco.
Among the most significant works of the prolific poet and prelate Antoine Godeau (1605–1672), a founding member of the Academie française and Richelieu’s appointment as Bishop of Grasse in 1636, the paraphrases of the New Testament Epistles were, in 1913, ‘still recommended and useful, the sense and connexion of ideas being brought out clearly by the insertion of the fewest possible words’ (Catholic Encyclopedia).
The five Pauline epistles were published over the course of the 1630s, the majority printed by Jean Camusat, who had been named printer to the Academie in 1634 and whose widow – after his death in 1639 – successfully lobbied to retain her husband’s position, against Richelieu’s attempts to appoint a new printer in his stead. She went on to print the first edition of Godeau’s paraphrase of the Catholic Epistles in 1640 and to gather the Pauline paraphrases, previously published separately, as a ‘new edition, revised and corrected’ and printed uniformly in 1641. In three volumes the privileges, or added comments, assert De Courbes’s right to continue printing under privileges granted to her late husband.
The Corinthians here includes both the cancelland P1 and, with textual corrections, the cancellans printed and bound as the final Aa2.
Library Hub finds parts at only two locations in the UK: the Pauline Epistles only, at the British Library, and Thessalonians ‘with a number of other paraphrases’ at Blickling Hall. OCLC finds only scattered holdings in the US: three parts at the Newberry (Romans, Hebrews, and Catholic), two parts at UCLA (Romans and Corinthians), single volumes of Romans at Cornell and Huntington, of Corinthians at the Library of Congress, St Thomas, and University of Washington, and no copies of Galatians or Thessalonians.