THE GREATEST HISTORY OF THE CHURCH EVER WRITTEN

BARONIUS, CAESAR & ABRAHAM BZOVIUS.

Annales Ecclesiastici. Editio novissima ab ipsomet ante obitum aucta & iam denuo recognita. Tomi Duodecim (12 Tomi) + (Continuation:) Annalium Ecclesiasticorum post Caesarem Baronium... Authore Abrahamo Bzovio. Tomus XIII-XX. (= Vols. 1-20).

Köln, Ioannis Gymnici, Antonius Boetzer, 1624 a. 1621-1640.

Folio. (40 x 26 cm.). Bound in 8 (thick) uniform contemporary full pigskin bindings over wooden boards. Raised bands and richly blind-tooled boards. Title labels with gilt lettering. Clasps missing. Spines a bit rubbed. Wear to some spine-ends. Some upper compartments with nicks, one volume having a tear in leather at upper compartment. One volume with a small loss of leather to upper compartement. With engraved title-page, engraved portrait of Baronius, engraved portrait of pope Urban VII. More than 10.000 pp. Printed in double-columns. In general internally fine.

Baronius's monumental work (with its continuation by Bzovius up to the year 1565) hailed by Roman Catholic writers as the greatest history of the church ever written and Baronius hailed as the "father of ecclestical history" (1-12 dealt with Anno 1-1198 and volume13 -20, Anno 1198-1565).

"The Annales were first published between 1588 and 1607. This work functioned as an official response to the Lutheran Historia Ecclesiae Christi (History of the Church of Christ). In that work, the Magdeburg theologians surveyed the history of the Christian church in order to demonstrate how the Catholic Church represented the Antichrist and had deviated from the beliefs and practices of the early church. In turn, the Annales fully supported the claims of the papacy to lead the unique true church.

"Before Baronius was appointed Librarian of the Vatican in 1597, he had access to material and sources in its archives that were previously unpublished or unused. He used these in the development of his work. Accordingly, the documentation in Annales Ecclesiastici is considered by most as extremely useful and complete. Lord Acton called it "the greatest history of the Church ever written"."

Graesse I, 296. - Brunet I, 662-631.

Order-nr.: 51428