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The most important doctrinal work of the Refo

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:875.00 USD Estimated At:1,750.00 - 2,250.00 USD
The most important doctrinal work of the Refo
The most important doctrinal work of the Reformation. Very rare 1612 printing of Institutio Christianae religionis..., book by John Calvin (Iohanne Calvino), Geneva. "It is the most important doctrinal work of the Reformation as a whole and provided a comprehensive theological system rivalling those of the Middle Ages, particularly Thomas Aquinas's."--PMM. A handsome volume, in original smooth vellum, richly toned, contemporary manuscript title on spine, 541 pp. plus extensive index. 1711 and 1757 owner's inscriptions on flyleaf, 19th-century London bookseller's decorative label. With variant text and charming woodcut portrait on title page. "First published in Basel in 1536, when the author was only twenty-six, the Institutes provides a clear and systematic statement of Calvin's fundamental beliefs. Although the work was continually rewritten and expanded throughout his lifetime, the author's views remained essentially unchanged over the course of the many revisions, and the work soon became the textbook of the Protestant movement."--Abelard Books. Calvin's work was popular among the Puritans. Occasional insignificant bookworming, minor star split in vellum at upper hinge, else tight, internally clean and very fine, and in remarkably superior condition. This edition not in Library of Congress; only a handful of examples in European libraries of this variant; none on the market. Adams C 367. "It may be doubted...if the history of literature presents us with another instance of a book written at so early an age, which has exercised such a prodigious influence upon the opinions and practices both of contemporaries and of posterity."--Encyclopædia Brittanica, 11th ed. A significant item, both for the antiquarian, and for the student of human civilization and thought.