Historia ecclesiastica Veteris Novique Testamenti : ab orbe condito ad annum post Christum natum millesimum sexcentesimum: et in loca ejusdem insignia dissertationes historicae, chronologicae, criticae, dogmaticae: R.P. Natalis Alexandri (8 volume set in 7)

Parisiis : A. Dezallier, 1699-01-01. 3rd. Hardcover. Good. Complete 8 volume set, bound in 7 volumes. Vols. 1 & 2 bound together. Folios, 38 cm. 3rd edition. Bound in contemporary calf. 6 raised bands. Gilt spine. All bindings solid. Chipping with loss to spines, particularly to vol. 3. Engraved title in red and black. Internally good, a few contemporary notations to margins, browning spots to pages, but very usable. Early signature of Joannes Baptista Parisi parrochey Ollargien, 1703 (sp?) on end pages. 19th century seminary book plate. Moreri, Grand Dictionnaire Historique I(1731) 220; Graesse /71; Qurard I 29; Ebert 418 ; De Feller, Biographie Universelle I(1847) 129; Brunet I 169; A. Hanggi, Der Kirchenhistoriker Natalis Alexander, Freiburg/Schweiz, 1955. <br><br> Alexander Natalis, an important French historian and theologian, began his great history of the church at the urging of Jean Baptiste Colbert. Alexander's Historiae initially brought him praise from Pope Innocent XI and many cardinals, but subsequent volumes gave offence to the Pope and Rome because of the author's Gallicanism, an upstart Catholic sect from the Declaration of the Clergy of France in 1682 at the behest of King Louis XIV. Pope Innocent IX placed this work on the Index and forbade Catholics to read it on pain on excommunication. In the preface to the third edition (Paris, 1699, eight folio volumes) Father Alexander submitted fully to the judgment of the Holy See, and in some scholia added to the dissertations showed that in some instances he had been criticized and judged unjustly. Alexander did formally amend his edition as expected, but did not purge the offending remarks, rather these remarks where extracted from the text and placed in the scholia. Alexander is noted for his important contribution to research on Thomas Aquinas and his Summa Theologica. - McMahon, A. (1907). Alexander Natalis. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. <br><br> This is an oversized or heavy book, that requires additional postage for international delivery outside the US.