Title page of 'Deus Solus seu Confoederatio', a theological work by Henri Marie Boudon, published in Graz in 1678, detailing its Latin translation and dedication.

886J Boudon, Henry Marie (1624-1702.)

Deus solus seu Confoederatio inita ad honorem Solius Dei promovendum. Opusculum primò Gallicè conscriptum ab Henrico Maria Boudon, SS. Theol. Doct. et Magno Archidiacono Ecclesiae Ebroicensis. post in Italicum idioma translatum à R.P. Josepho Anturini, Soc. Jesu. Nunc demum ab alio ejusdem Soc. Jesu sacerdote latinâ linguâ donatum. Dicatum pro Xenio DD. Sodalibus B.V. Annuntiatae, in Archid. et Acad. Soc. Jesu Collegio Graecii, anno 1678.– 

Graecii : apud Haeredes Widmanstadii, Erben 1678 . Price $1,300

An engraved title page featuring a radiant sun at the top, with the word 'soli' above it. Below, a winged creature resembling a phoenix holds a quill and stands on a globe, which has a scale nearby. The inscription 'In Vno Omnia' is displayed at the bottom.

Small octavo 12.5 x7 cm. Signatures π1A-F12  First Edition. Bound in full contemporary calf with all edges gilt full-page allegorical frontispiece title showing the Deus Solus emblem—God as radiant sun surrounded by angels and instruments of devotion.

This 1678 Graz edition represents the first Latin appearance of Boudon’s Dieu seul (Paris, 1662), translated through Italian into Latin, and is distinct from the Louvain and Antwerp devotional reprints of the 18th century. WorldCat locates fewer than five copies worldwide, mostly in European Jesuit libraries (BSB, Vienna, and Rome), and none in U.S. libraries confirmed at the time of writing.  

Boudon, Archdeacon of Évreux, was among the central French mystics of the late 17th century. His Dieu seul (“God Alone”) articulated an absolute theocentrism that profoundly influenced the French School of spirituality (Bérulle, Condren, Olier), and later figures such as de Montfort and Bossuet. 

The Graz Jesuit adaptation reveals how Boudon’s spirituality was assimilated within Jesuit devotional pedagogy—emphasizing total consecration to divine will and detachment from created things. Giuseppe Anturini, S.J. (fl. mid-17th century), an Italian Jesuit preacher, had previously rendered Boudon’s works into Italian. This Graz edition’s anonymous Latin translator, “alius ejusdem Societatis sacerdos,” produced it ad usum sodalium Annuntiatae Virginis Mariae—a confraternity within the Jesuit college. Its engraved title may correspond to similar emblematic frontispieces used for Graz devotional tracts (cf. Sommervogel  vol.XI, col.1395 nº 1).

This Deus solus encapsulates late-Baroque Jesuit devotional internationalism, in which a French mystic’s radical interiority was reinterpreted through Jesuit channels into the Latin of Central-European pietas. The engraved title visually enacts the motto Deus solus—a solitary sun radiating divine grace—linking the mysticism of Boudon to the emblematic didacticism of the Society.

Surviving examples are rare; the Graz Jesuit press seldom issued more than a few hundred copies for internal circulation.

DeBacker- Sommervogel . vol.XI, col.1395 nº 1 ;   VD17 23:719952M