Prae-Adamitae sive exercitatio super versibus duodecimo, decimoterti, & decimoqvarto, capitis quinti Epistolae d. Pauli ad Romanos. Quibus inducuntur primi hominis ante Adamum conditi.

No place, 1655. 16mo. 52,+ (14),+ 260,+ (7) pp.+ engr. fold. map. Minor spotting. 19th-century half vellum, gilt spine with red label. Contemporary annotations on verso of title and with authors name in ink on title. Owner’s signature of Lorens Niemane on front fly-leaf. From the library of Bengt Löw, with his signature. VD17 14:649973Q, but with extra pagination! Contains the ”Exercitatio...” (52 pp), ”Systema theologicum, ex Prae-Adamitarum hypothesi” (260 pp) and ”Synagogis Judaeorum universis” (7 pp.). Isaac de la Peyrère (1594-1676) was a calvinistic lawyer who later converted into catholicism. In 1654 he lived in a house in the Southern Netherlands adjoining that of the recently abdicated Queen Christina of Sweden. Christina is said to have financed the anonymous publication of ”Prae-Adamitae”. La Peyrère’s explanation of St. Paul’s words in Chapter 5, verses 12-14 of his Epistle to the Romans that the world was inhabited before Adam, and that it therefore must have been two creations raised in 1656 a storm of indignation. The ”Prae-Adamitae” was condemned and burned in public in Paris and La Peyrère was imprisoned, but released after he regretting his views. His theory have had an impact on later polygenism and racism.