The Religious ceremonies and customs of the several nations of the known world..., Jean Frederic Bernard, illustrated by Bernard Picart, London: Claude du Bosc, 1733-1739

7 parts in 6 volumes (18 1/8 x 10 ½ in.; 460 x 268 mm). Profusely illustrated with hundreds of copperplate engravings, many of them foldouts. Two volumes with the scarce dedication page. Vol. IV, marked part II, as issued. Vol. VI comprises parts six and seven. Titles in red and black; owner’s inscription (Fr. Willyams–1752) on title pages. Occasional minor spotting. Overall a very fresh copy with especially large margins. Tinted edges. Uniformly bound in contemporary calf; Worn, rebacked. vols. IV, V, VI, misnumbered on spines.

first english language edition of the book that changed europe

In the early 18th century, in the very first decades of the intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment, two men produced a multi-volume work that made readers – in French, English, Dutch and German – see religion in a new way. Bernard Picart (1673-1733) was one of the most prolific and talented engravers of his age. Jean Frederic Bernard (1683-1744) was a French language bookseller and publisher of Huguenot descent based in Amsterdam. Together they prepared thousands of pages and hundreds of engravings that sought to capture the ritual and ceremonial life of all the known religions of the world.

Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, or simply "Picart" as it was often subsequently known, broke with all the previous models. It attempted to present all religions, even those of the "idolatrous peoples," as even-handedly as possible. It argued for religious toleration by showing the ill effects of fanaticism, wherever it could be found, and by praising those religions, such as Islam, that offered toleration to others. At a time of widespread anti-Semitism, it offered one of the most sympathetic portraits then available of European Jewry.

Its translation into English removed some of the more radical comments about religion found in the original French text, though the Dutch one did not, and these translations, along with an abridgment in German, meant that the book and especially Picart's images became the standard means of portraying many of the world's religions until well into the 19th century.

N.B. This lot is accompanied by the 1732, three-volume edition of Calmet's,  Historical…Dictionary of the Holy Bible., with over 160 copperplate engravings.

LITERATURE:
Hunt, Jacob, and Mijnhardt, The Book that Changed Europe: Picart and Bernard's Religious Ceremonies of the World (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), 2010.

PROVENANCE:
Fr. Willyams--1752, his inscription on each title-page.