LA MESSE ETUDES ARCHEOLOGIQUES SUR SES MONUMENTS (Volumes 1 and 3)

Morel et Cie, Li, 1883. First Edition. Hardcover. GOOD. Vol. I: iv, 240, 8 + i-xxiv, clxxxix-ccliv plates; Vol. III: 187, 6 + lxxxix plates. Large quarto, navy cloth, gilt spine titling, vol. 1 frontispiece, B/W. plates . Thin muslin cloth is worn around the extremities with much fraying and recession, interior hinges remain strong with intact marbled endpapers. Interior contents are very clean and sharp with sound stitching. Bindings labeled as 'I' and 'II' thought they are, in fact, the first and third of eight total volumes. Comprised of the first and third volumes of the de Fleury father/son tractatus theologico-archaeologicus. Charles, the elder de Fleury, was an eminent French architect of the mid-1900's, noted for his advances in the design of wrought-iron and glass construction. For somewhat obscure reasons, he abandoned his firm and turned his immense learning to spiritual ends, spending the remaining years of his life compiling what became, under his son Georges's editorship, 8 volumes of studies on the liturgical, theological, and archaeological settings of the Mass in Church history, with special emphasis on the patristic period. Abundant plates of ecclesial architectural settings in Rohault's impeccable hand.