De ss. martyrum cruciatibus...liber, cum figuris Romae in aere incisis per Antonium Tempestam, et aliis ejusdem argumenti Libellis

Paris: Ex museo Raphaelis Tricheti du Fresne, 1659. Hardcover. Hardcover/No Jacket. 8vo (impeial). Halfbound contemporary calf over marbled boards. A collection of [44] engravings by Antonio Tempesta [1555-1630] plus engraved title page, taken from the French Edition of Antonio Gallonio's work about the Tortures and Torments of the Christian Martyrs. Illustrations show images depicting human torture, devices, and various tools used throughout history. Early bookseller label of Henry March Gilbert [1845-1931] on upper left corner of front pastedown endpaper. Rubbing to corners and spine. Light staining to leaves and endpapers. Otherwise in very good condition. Atonio Gallonio [1556-1605] was a Roman priest in the Congregation of the Oratory. Interested in the Martyrs, Gallonio studied the various methods of torture they endured, resulting in a book on the subject, originally published in Italy in 1591. Later, he translated his work into Latin in 1594. These engravings are taken from the French Edition republished by Raphael Trichet du Fresne with the copper engravings from the Italian Edition. (See Touber, Jetze (2014). Martyrological Torture and the Invention of Empathy: Gallonio's Treatise on the Instruments of Martyrdom and Its Reception in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. p. 18). Gallonio's work remains one of the most influential sources on the history of human torture.