Christian Apologetics
MINUCIUS FELIX; CYPRIAN, Saint, of Carthage; RIGAULT, Nicolas, editor.
M. Minucii Felicis Octavius, et Caecilii Cypriani De idolor. vanitate. Nova editio ad fidem veterum exemplarium. Nicolai Rigaltii observationes. Paris, ‘apud viduam Mathurini du Puis’, 1643.
4to, pp. [12], 246, [24]; title in red and black, woodcut initials; occasional light foxing and spotting; a good copy in seventeenth-century sheep, spine with four raised bands and gilt-lettered label, marbled edges; worn, losses of leather to spine, corners, and edges, joints split but holding.
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M. Minucii Felicis Octavius, et Caecilii Cypriani De idolor. vanitate. Nova editio ad fidem veterum exemplarium. Nicolai Rigaltii observationes.
First Rigault edition of two works of early Christian apologetics by the third-century writers Minucius Felix and St Cyprian of Carthage, published by Adrienne Du Puis.
The ‘Octavius’ of Minucius Felix is ‘an elegant defence of Christianity in the form of a conversation between Octavius, a Christian, and Caecilius, a pagan, who was converted by the argument. The book refutes the common charges against Christians …, argues the case for monotheism and providence, and attacks pagan mythology’ (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church). It is accompanied here by a tract ‘On the vanity of idols’ by St Cyprian, bishop of Carthage (d. 258). The editor, Nicolas Rigault (1577–1654), served as librarian to Louis XIII.
Adrienne Du Puis (née Brillet, d. 1658) was the wife and successor of the Parisian printer Mathurin Du Puis (d. 1643), this volume being published in the first year in which she operated independently. Her publications ranged widely, encompassing genealogy, law, and medicine, in addition to theology, and included an edition of Claude Saumaise’s defence of Charles I (Defensio regia pro Carolo I) and John Milton’s response (Defensio pro populo Anglicano).
USTC 6036859.