$923
Montfaucon, Bernard de (1655-1741) Bibliotheca Coisliniana. Paris: Guerin & Robustel, 1715. First edition, folio, illustrated with five full-page engravings, extraneous to the collation, and numerous text engravings of Greek scripts, bound in full contemporary stiff tight-backed parchment over boards, blind ruled with large central blind-stamped lozenge, the binding dirty and dry, front board reflexed, damage to front joint, ex libris English Biblical scholar Henry Barclay Swete (1835-1917), with his bookplate inside the front board, scattered spotting and foxing to text leaves, flyleaves folded and dusty, 15 3/4 x 9 1/2 in. This important work of pioneering paleographer Montfaucon is an exhaustive catalog of the Greek manuscripts from the library of the Duc de Coislin, which he had inherited from his great-grandfather Pierre Seguier (1588-1672). Coislin donated the collection to the abbey of St Germain-des-Pres in 1731, where some were destroyed by fire in 1793. The surviving manuscripts are now held at the Bibliotheque Nationale. Henry Swete is best known for his editions of the Greek New Testament.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2014-11-16
