Description:
8vo, pp. xxviii, 384; engraved arms of Henry Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York, on verso of a3, numerous woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces; some light foxing in places, but largely clean and fresh; in contemporary carta rustica; title in ink on spine, along with old shelf-label at head; some wear, but still a good copy.First edition, rare, of this attack on the deism of the enlightenment, with detailed criticisms of Voltaire and Rousseau, by the Capuchin friar Sigismondo de Musson.
The work is divided into three parts, dealing in turn with natural theology, the Old Testament, and the New Testament, and is written in response to the 'Pseudo-Philosophorum turba [which] hisce temporibus ubique locorum erumpat'. In the first, the author discusses the notion of God as creator, human origins, the rationality and immortality of the soul, free will, natural law, and revelation, regularly citing authors including La Mettrie, Helvétius, Rousseau, and Hobbes. The second part opens with a discussion of… Read More