Curiositez inouyes sur la sculpture talismanique des Persans, horoscope des Patriarches, et lecture des estoilles.

Paris: Hervé du Mesnil,, 1629. The French royal librarian's copy First edition of this work on star reading, Persian talismans, and the Kabbalah by Gaffarel, Richelieu's librarian and the noted orientalist. This copy is from the library of Jérôme Bignon II, Advocate General to the Paris Parlement and the librarian to the king, with his gilt arms on the covers. Gaffarel (1601-1681) studied in Valence and Paris, and had a wide knowledge of oriental languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, Syrian, and Persian. Curiositez was his major work, based on his competence in the field of Jewish manuscripts and especially the Kabbalah. "Gaffarel was one of the most scholarly connoisseurs of such manuscripts and had long travelled all over Italy collecting them for Richelieu's library" (Mulsow, p. 342). The work is divided into four sections: the first is a defence of astrology from Christian charges of superstition and idolatry, the second is concerned with the talismanic sculpture of the Persians, the third focuses on Hebrew astrology, and the fourth concerns star reading. The fourth part argues that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet can be deduced from constellations and that this alphabet – being "written" in the stars – has a divine origin. This idea, previously advanced by Guillaume Postel in his De originibus seu de Hebraica lingua (1538), is here illustrated in two large celestial maps bound at the end showing the stars arranged to form Hebrew letters. Gaffarel also reports, on pages 97-98, his discovery in Italy of a Persian text by an author named Hamahalzel, in the Hebrew translation by Rabbi Khomer; no authors with these names are known, and the authenticity of the text is debated by modern scholars. "On August 1, 1629, the faculty of theology at Paris condemned Gaffarel's book as 'entirely to be disapproved', and called its doctrine false, erroneous, scandalous, opposed to Holy Writ, contumelious towards the Church Fathers, and superstitious" (Thorndike, p. 306). On 4 October, Gaffarel signed a rather vague retraction stating that in the book he was merely recording opinions collected from Arabic and Hebrew sources. Despite this controversy, Curiositez proved extremely popular; it was immediately republished in a number of authorized and pirated editions, translated into Latin and English, and was still being reprinted in the early 18th century. Provenance: with Bignon's manuscript shelf mark "Bignon. No. 307 00" on the front pastedown; a few early underlinings and manuscript corrections to the text providing alternate spellings might be in his hand. Bignon (1627-1697) had inherited his offices in the Parliament and Royal Library from his father. The books in the Bignon family library were sold by Father Jean-Paul Bignon (1662-1743) to the financier John Law, who resold them to Cardinal Dubois (1656-1723). This book was lot 1092 in the catalogue of Dubois's sale in 1725. It later entered the collection of François-Michel de Verthamon, marquis de Breau (d. 1738), with his armorial bookplate on the rear pastedown. Octavo (159 x 104 mm). Late 17th-century calf, spine with raised bands, elaborate gilt floral decoration in compartments, red morocco label, covers with gilt armorial centrepiece of Jérôme Bignon II, the grapes in Bignon's arms are matched in the gilt tooling on the spine compartments, board edges tooled in gilt, edges sprinkled red. 2 folding woodcut plates, woodcut initials, typographical headpieces, grotesque tailpieces, small woodcut diagrams and tables in text; Roman, Italic, Greek, and Hebrew type. Occasional faint 19th-century pencil annotations. Loss of leather at spine ends, corners worn, joints cracked but firm, some surface crackling and couple of scratches to calf, faint damp stain to book block edge extending slightly to outer margins, not affecting text, small old paper repair to worm trail in margin of leaves Hh1-Ii3, couple of marks, otherwise clean. A very good copy. Caillet 4293; Cantamessa 2850 (1678 ed.); Houzeau & Lancaster, vol. I, 5127. Martin Mulsow, Knowledge Lost. A New View of Early Modern Intellectual History, 2022; Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Vol. VII, 1958. See Swart & Hondt, Bibliotheca Duboisiana, vol. IV, 27 Aug 1725.