jamesgray2

841G Fabio Ambrosi Spinola , 1593-1671.

Vita del P. Carlo Spinola della Compagnia di Giesù morto per la santa fede nel Giappone : del P. Fabio Ambrosio Spinola dell’istessa compagnia.

In Roma : Appresso Francesco Corbelletti, 1628                            $1,600

Octavo a4 A-O8.(this copy is lacking the Engraved port Spinolaas well as the folded plan of the prison in which Father Spinola was imprisoned in Nagasaki.)

The binding is early and certainly seventeenth century, a very nice but worn and chewed reversed alum tawed skin dyed green!  .

There is also the book plate of “Ex Fundatione R.P. Joachimi Faucher Bolennensis. Societ.Jusu ab Ano 1644” Polybiblion: Revue Bibliographique Universelle, Volume 76 – states (in French) that Docteur Bouland publishes a brochure adorned with beautiful engravings: The Foundation of Father Joachim Faucher and Vex-libris of PP. Jesuits of Avignon (Macon, imp. Protat, gr. in-8 4 p. Extract of the journal French Society of bookplate collectors). The author provides information on Fr. Joachim Faucher, born in Bollène February 12, 1606, died at Shore deGênes April 24, 1650, and the donation that he made in 1639 to the Jesuits of Avignon , using an inheritance given by his father, for a sum of three thousand pounds, whose interests were intended to sustain their library. For one hundred twenty-five years, from 1644-1768, all the books purchased by the Jesuit house Avignon were affixed with the commemorative book plate which is on this book: Ex fundatione RP Joachimi Bolennensis Faucher, Societ. lesu ab anno 1644.

This is a First edition of the Biography Of Carlo Spinola which was written six years after his death by his cousin Fabio Ambrosi Spinola, 1593-1671.Carlo Spinola was born in January 1564 in Madrid, Spain, the son of Ottavio Spinola, Count of Tassarolo. He was educated in Spain and in the Jesuit school in Nola, where he lived with his uncle, Philip Cardinal Spinola, Bishop of Nola. He entered the noviatiate in December 1584, and studied in Naples, Milan, and Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1594, and assigned to serve parishes in Cremona. In 1596, he received a letter appointing him to the missions in Japan. His journey was marked by shipwrecks and delays, which included captivity in England, and he reached his destination only in 1602, six years later. The first ship he took from Genoa struck a rock and was forced to return to Genoa for repairs. Setting out again, he arrived in Barcelona and made his way on foot to Lisbon. Spinola and his companions set from Lisbon on 10 April 1596. A violent wind damaged the ship’s rudder and they were forced to make for Brazil, where they landed on the 15 July. After five months they left Brazil, but a severe storm drove them Puerto Rico, arriving on 24 March 1597. The missionaries found the general state of morality among the Spanish sugar plantations deplorable, and Spinola considered their arrival providential. Based in San Juan, he and the small band of Jesuits preached and taught catechism, visiting outlying settlements. On one occasion, Spinola was nearly drowned when his horse lost its footing crossing a river. Setting sail from Puerto Rico on 21 August 1597, Spinola’s ship was captured by English pirates off the Azores and the Jesuits arrived in Yarmouth on 5 November. He studied Japanese before going to Miyako (Kyoto) where he was minister at the Jesuit College, and a teacher of mathematics and astronomy. For twelve years, he worked at ministering to the growing Christian community in Japan. In 1614, all foreign missionaries were banished so Spinola went into hiding, eluding capture for four years. After being arrested in 1618, he, together with Brother Ambrose Fernandes and their catechist, John Chogoku, were imprisoned for four years in a birdcage-like confinement under harsh conditions. He was burnt at the stake at Nagasaki on 10 September 1622. Charles was declared Blessed in 1867, along with 30 other Jesuits, over half of whom were Japanese.see Bl. Charles Spinola”, jesuit.org.sg; accessed 1 March 2014. Debacker-Sommervogel vol VII, col 1448 no.2; Streit, R. Bib. missionum,; v. V, no. 1407

572G Léonore Gigault de,; O.S.B. Bellefont (Bouhours)

Les OEuvres spirituelles de Madame De Bellefont, religieuse, fondatrice & superieure du convent de Nôtre-Dame des Anges, de l’Ordre de Saint Benoist, à Roüen.Dediées à Madame La Dauphine.

A Paris : Chez Helie Josset, ruë S. Jacques, au coin de la ruë de la Parcheminerie, à la fleur de lys d’or, 1688                          $2200

Octavo 6.25 x 3.6 in. a4, e8, i8, o2, A-Z8; Aa-Qq8 ; *8, **4. This copy is very clean and crisp it is bound in contemporary calf with ornately gilt spine. La vie de Madame de Bellefont”, on unnumbered pages preceding numbered text./ “Table des chapitres . . .” and “Stances” and “Paraphrases” in verse on final 24 numbered pages./ In the “Avant propos” this work is ascribed to “feüe madame Lêonore Gigault de Bellefont”, but most authorities credit Laurence Gigault de Bellefont with authorship See Sommervogel I 1908 #25

866G Edmund Campion 1540-1581

Historia Anglicana ecclesiastica : a primis gentis susceptae fidei incunabulis ad nostra fere tempora deducta, et in quindecim centurias distributa

Duaci : Sumptibus Marci Wyon, Typographi Iurati, sub signo Phoenicis, 1622    $4,400

Folio 332 X 210 mm a4, e4, i4, A-4Z4, 5A-5E4. This copy is bound in original full vellum.with the book plate of Ex libris Moritz Carl Christian Woog. È Bibliotheca Woogiana. „Nominor à Libra: Libratus nelevis unquam ..Karl Christian Moritz Woog (1684-1760), who was a German evangelical Minister who apparently devoted himself to scientific work, and more importantly for us, ‘collected a handsome library’ (Muller – General German Biography). The library, wonderfully named Bibliothecae Woogianae, was sold at auction in Dresden in 1755, and as you would expect was largely theological in content, though there were works on history, philosophy, economics and medicine This book has uniform humidity browning through out. Historia Wicleffiana eivsdem avctoris”: p. [661]-732./ “Catalogus. Ex Anglico Ioannis Speed Latinva, in quo suo uno aspectu videre est omnium tum monasteriorum …” p. 741-779. “Shortly after dawn on July 18, 1581, the cry went out: “I have found the traitors!” With a crowbar the false wall at the head of the stairs was torn away, revealing the huddled figures of Edmund Campion and two companions, three priests lately returned to their native England to minister to those resisting the oppression from the new English Church. Their discovery set them upon the path to martyrdom.Edmund Campion was born on January 25, 1540 into an England of religious and social upheaval. Protestantism had usurped the Catholic Church as the spiritual authority; the dissolution of monasteries and the suppression of Catholic beliefs and believers intensified as land-hungry nobles and men of power continued, in the name of the young, sickly Edward VI, the transformation begun by Henry VIII.Campion was 13 and the most promising scholar at Christ’s Hospital school in London when he was chosen to read an address to Mary Tudor upon her arrival in London as queen in 1553. Campion received a scholarship to Oxford at age 15, and, by the time Elizabeth rose to power (“restoring” Protestantism as the national religion) upon Mary’s death in 1558, he was already a junior fellow.At Oxford Campion’s erudition, charisma, and charm gained him noteriety; his students even imitated his mannerisms and style of dress. Queen Elizabeth visited in 1566 and for her entertainment was treated to academic displays. Campion, the star of the show, single-handedly debated four other scholars and so impressed the queen that she promised the patronage of her advisor (and one of the principal architects of the Reformation in England) William Cecil, who referred to Campion as the “diamond of England.”It was the hope of the crown that Campion would become a defender of the new faith which, though favored by the temporal power, lacked learned apologists. Yet even as he was ordained to the Anglican diaconate, he was being swayed toward Rome, influenced in great part by older friends with Catholic sympathies. In 1569 he journeyed to Dublin, where he composed his <History of Ireland>. At this point Campion was at the summit of his powers. He could have risen to the highest levels of fame had he stayed his course. But this was not to be. By the time Campion left Ireland, he knew he could not remain a Protestant.Campion’s Catholic leanings were well-publicized, and he found the atmosphere hostile upon his return to England in 1571. He went abroad to Douay in France, where he was reconciled with the Church and decided to enter the Society of Jesus. He made a pilgrimmage to Rome and journeyed to Prague, where he lived and taught for six years and in 1578 was ordained a Jesuit priest.In 1580 he was called by superiors to join fellow Jesuit Robert Parsons in leading a mission to England. He accepted the assignment joyfully, but everyone was aware of the dangers. The night before his departure from Prague, one of the Jesuit fathers wrote over Campion’s door, “<P. Edmundus Campianus, Martyr.>”Campion crossed the English Channel as “Mr. Edmunds,” a jewel dealer. His mission was nearly a short one: At Dover a search was underway for Gabriel Allen, another English Catholic expatriate who was rumored to be returning to England to visit family. Apparently Allen’s description fit Campion also, and he was detained by the mayor of Dover, who planned to send Campion to London. Inexplicably, while waiting for horses for the journey, the mayor changed his mind, and sent “Mr. Edmunds” on his way.Upon reaching London, Campion composed his “Challenge to the Privy Council,” a statement of his mission and an invitation to engage in theological debate (see “Classic Apologetics” in this issue). Copies spread quickly, and several replies to the “Challenge” were published by Protestant writers, who attached to it a derogatory title, “Campion’s Brag,” by which it is best known today.The power and sincerity of the “Brag” is accompanied by a degree of naivete: Campion’s statement of purpose was of no value during his later trial for treason, and the challenge to debate, repeated later in his apologetic work <Decem Rationes>, was as much an invitation to capture. And his capture seemed almost inevitable: Elizabeth had spies everywhere searching for priests, the most sought after of whom being her former “diamond of England.”Campion and his companions traveled stealthily through the English countryside in the early summer of 1581, relying on old, landed Catholic families as hosts. They said Mass, heard confession, performed baptisms and marriages, and preached words of encouragement to a people who represented the last generation to confess the faith of a Catholic England.There were close calls. Many homes had hiding places for priests—some even had secret chapels and confessionals—and the Jesuits had to rely on these more than once. Campion took extraordinary risks, never able to turn down a request to preach or administer the sacraments, and more than once he escaped detection while in a public setting.His fortune changed while visiting the home of Francis Yate in Lyford Grange, which was west of London. Yate was a Catholic imprisoned for his faith who had repeatedly asked for one of the Jesuit fathers to tend to the spiritual needs of his household. Though it was out of the way and the queen’s searchers were reportedly in hot pursuit, Campion was unable to resist the request.He traveled to Lyford, heard confessions, preached well into the night, and departed without difficulty after saying Mass at dawn. Some nuns visiting the home shortly thereafter were upset to hear they had just missed Campion, and so riders were dispatched to pursuade him to return, which he did. Word of his return reached George Eliot, born and regarded as Catholic but in fact a turncoat in the pay of the queen; he had a general commission to hunt down and arrest priests. Eliot arrived at Lyford with David Jenkins, another searcher, and attended a Mass. He was greatly outnumbered by the Catholics, and, fearing resistance, made no move to arrest Campion. He departed abruptly to fetch the local magistrate and a small militia and returned to the Yate property during dinner. News of the approaching party reached the house, and Campion and his two priestly companions were safely squirreled away in a narrow cell prepared especially for that purpose, with food and drink for three days.Later Eliot and Jenkins both claimed to have discovered the priests, offering the same story: A strip of light breaking through a gap in the wall leading to the hiding place was the giveaway—both men took credit for noticing it, and each reported being the one to break through the wall. No doubt each sought the credit for capturing the infamous Campion, for no priest was more beloved by the Catholics nor more despised by the crown.Campion was taken to the Tower and tortured. Several times he was forced to engage in debates, without benefit of notes or references and still weak and disoriented from his rackings and beatings. He acquited himself admirably, all things considered: a testament to his unparalled rhetorical skills.His trial was a farce. Witnesses were bribed, false evidence produced; in truth, the outcome had been determined since his arrival. Campion was eloquent and persuasive to the last, dominating the entire procedure with the force of his logic and his knowledge of the Scripture and law, but in vain. He and his priestly and lay companions were convicted of treason on November 14 and were sentenced to death. His address to the court upon sentencing invoked the Catholic England for which he had fought, the Catholic England which was about to die: “In condemning us, you condemn all your own ancestors—all the ancient priests, bishops and kings—all that was once the glory of England.”On December 1,1581 the prophecy hanging over his door in Prague was fulfilled: Campion was hanged, drawn, and quartered. The poet Henry Walpole was there, and during the quartering some blood from Campion’s entrails splashed on his coat. Walpole was profoundly changed. He went overseas, took orders, and 13 years later met his own martyrdom on English soil. Campion was beatified by Leo XIII in 1886.”