901J Boudon , Henry Marie (1624- 1702)

**DEUS SOLUS, SEU CONFOEDERATIOINITA Ad honorem SOLIUS DEI
promovendum, OPUSCULUM Primò Gallicè conscriptum Ab HENRICO MARIA BOUDON, SS. Theol. Doctore, & Magno Archi-Diacono Ecclesiæ Ebriocensis; Deinde variis variarum linguarum typis editum; hodie HONORI ET VENERATIONI DD. NEO-PROMOTORUM Admodum Reverendi, Prænobilis, ac Eximii Domini GEORGII JOSEPHI
AUGUSTINI KUNTSCHE, SS. Theologiæ Doctoris, Cæsareo-Regiæ Civitatis Habelschwerdensis Curati, &c. & Reverendi, ac Doctissimi Domini CASPARI SCRIBANI, Sacrosanctæ Theologiæ Licentiati, Civitatis Lauroiensis Sacellani, &c. inscriptum, & typo vulgatum.

Olmütz (Olomouc):Apud Joannem Josephum Kilian,1676. Price $1,100

The title page of a 1676 Latin devotional work titled 'Deus Solus, seu Confoederatio Inita' by Henry Marie Boudon, honoring scholars Georgius Josephus Augustinus Kuntsche and Caspar Scribani. The page features ornate text and includes the names of notable Jesuit figures.

Duodecimo 12 x 7.5 cm. Signatures: )?(2 A-E12,F4 [2] ff., 126 pp. Bound in contemporary red silk over very thin wooden boards with gilt edges.


A very rare Olmütz devotional printing. Not in VD 17, with only one recorded copy (University of Cologne). The work is a Latin adaptation of Boudon’s Deus Solus, first composed in French as a mystical treatise on the soul’s exclusive dedication to God. This edition was issued in honor of two Jesuit graduates, Kuntsche and Scribani, suggesting it was printed within a Jesuit academic milieu.
Georgius Josephus Augustinus Kuntsche SS. Theologiae Doctor was the Curatus Civitatis Habelschwerdensis curate of the Imperial Royal city of Habelschwerdt (today Bystrzyca Kłodzkain southwestern Poland) Caspar Scribanus Sacrosanctae Theologiae Licentiatus, which sits one rung below the doctorate in the medieval/Jesuit academic hierarchy Sacellanus Civitatis Lauroviens suggests He might have had been from Łąkowa or the nearby regio. These dedictations suggest that this Olomouc edition of Deus Solus was specifically printed as a celebratory or gift volume. (Also the red silk binding might suggest this).
Boudon, archdeacon of Évreux and a leading figure of 17th-century French spiritual mysticism, advocated a radical form of theocentric devotion, akin to that of Jean de Bernières and early Quietist currents, yet fully within ecclesiastical orthodoxy. The present printing represents one of the few Central European adaptations of his work testimony to the cross-confessional diffusion of French devotional literature into the Habsburg lands.

Printed by Johann Josef Kilian, successor to Vít Jindřich Ettel, who operated the only authorized press in Moravia between 1673 and 1703. Kilian inherited the privilegium typographicum in 1673 through marriage to Ettel’s widow Anna Alžběta Ettelová. From his Olmütz workshop he produced official diocesan and academic works for the Jesuit college, devotional manuals, and university theses—approximately 150 titles in all. The 1676 Deus solus belongs to his early period of independent operation, when Olmütz was a Jesuit stronghold and the city’s sole printing centre. Comparable Kilian imprints include Exercitia spiritualia S. Ignatii Loyolae (Olmütz 1675) and Conciones variae ad usum Collegii Societatis Jesu (Olmütz 1677).
Not in VD 17; cf. Sommervogel I, 174 ff. (other translations).

Close-up view of the back cover of a vintage book bound in red silk with visible wear and tear.
Close-up view of a vintage book with a red silk cover and gilt edges, showcasing its worn appearance and unique binding.