John Calvin's Commentaries 1556 First Edition

In Omnes Pauli Apostoli Epistolas, atque etiam in Epistolam ad Hebraeos, item in Canonicas Petri Johannis, Jacobi, et Judae, quae etiam Cathoicae vocantur, Joh. Calvini Commentarii. Hanc Commentariorum postremam esse recognitionem, ex lectione atque collatione cum prioribus, deprehendet lector. Paris: Robert Estienne, 1556, folio.

 

THE EXTREMELY RARE FIRST COLLECTED EDITION OF CALVIN'S IMPORTANT COMMENTARIES ON THE NEW TESTAMENT EPISTLES.

THE ONLY KNOWN COPY IN PRIVATE HANDS, COLLATED AS COMPLETE, INCLUDING THE ORIGINAL BLANKS.

 

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Calvin began publishing his famous commentaries separately in 1540, the first being his commentary on Romans. This effort took him all the way up until 1556 with the printing of this first collected edition, but he continued to publish other commentaries after this, for example his commentary on Psalms which came one year later. All editions of Calvin printed during his lifetime are extremely rare, but especially these commentaries as the Institutio was widely printed whereas this is the only obtainable copy that we can trace has ever come to the market of this edition. This is the first edition of Calvin's commentaries which brought together all of the Epistles of the New Testament, with the exception of 2 John which Calvin never wrote on. It is the single most important printing of any of Calvin's works alongside his Institutio. The content of these commentaries, as well as the other aspects of Calvin's theology, formed what became the single biggest theological revolution of the early modern period, with Calvinism still hotly debated today with the contenders like Molinism, Arminianism, etc. The historical influence is also of course incredibly important, especially as it pertains to the Church of England and the subsequent influence on other reformed denominations such as Presbyterianism, etc. This is one of the most significant works ever printed in the field of Biblical exegesis, particularly as the NT Epistles were key to the development of Calvinist thought and reformed theology as a whole as it is from these we find the development of central Calvinist ideas such as predestination, justification, unconditional election, etc.

In terms of the rarity of this edition, we can trace no copies other than the one we here offer for sale having ever appeared on the market over at least the last ~50 years both in bookseller catalogues and auction records. This is the only known opportunity of acquisition for this highly important first edition of reformed theology and it's in stunningly beautiful condition. WorldCat records a total of 29 copies held institutionally across all entries, though some of these may reference the "mikrofiche" facsimile edition of 1993 being misreported as the true edition. The "mikrofiche" series was created for the contemporary editions of Calvin because the originals are just so incredibly rare. It is such a rare edition that the British Library does not own a copy, indeed only 4 copies are recorded in all of Britain, and none are in any countries other than the UK, US, Germany, Ireland, and Australia (4, 14, 9, 1, 1, respectively). In terms of private ownership, this appears to be one of the only copies in private hands worldwide, and certainly the only obtainable copy, as no other copies have appeared for sale in at least several generations.

This copy was well-read by a contemporary of Calvin, clearly by several theological scholars of the 16th century Reformation period, and we can note this by the presence of contemporary marginalia. In this marginalia we see it is clearly of learned interpretation, with references to Augustine, Origen, etc, and in multiple early hands, at least three of which are distinct and contemporary, which indicates that this copy was most likely owned in a theological institution during the Reformation which used this as a study copy. This seems most likely as this was a very expensive edition when printed, being printed on luxury paper with excellent typography from the famous press of Estienne, and its folio size generally rendered its utility to institutional use anyway.

 

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Size: 230 x 344 mm (approx.)

 

Condition: 

(3), [*]⁴, a¹-z⁸, A¹-Z⁸, [2A]⁸, 2B¹-2C⁶, A¹-I⁸, K¹-M⁶, (3)

i.e. ((3), 8pp, 775pp, 180pp, (3))

COLLATED AS COMPLETE. 20th century full calf binding, tooled to spine in compartments between raised bands, date tooled in gilt to the foot of the spine in Roman. Binding a little rubbed, spine slightly sunned, but remains very attractive externally, bright, and in good order. Minor rubbing along joints but secure, with both boards securely attached, the binding is secure. Minor shelf wear to edges. Top page edge a little stained but not affecting text block. The first and last two blanks are new, but the original blanks are also present, one at each end, collated as (3) on both ends. 19th century ownership inscription at head of contemporary blank ("Amy le Hennick"?) with a now transparent region surrounding it from an attempt at its removal, with a further small ownership inscription, possibly by descent, to the head of the title page 'H Hennick'. Extensive contemporary marginalia throughout the volume starting on *iiib, with many manicules, written in at least three distinct hands. This marginalia is frequently extremely interesting. It has been partially trimmed away at the edges, as often, but is mostly preserved with the margin space remaining generous as expected with an Estienne imprint. The text block is, aside from the marginalia, extremely bright and clean throughout, fully legible throughout without any loss of sense to the text. An incredibly well preserved example of this extremely rare and important first collected edition of Calvin's Commentaries on the Epistles, particularly as this copy collates as complete through the preliminaries, text block, and even the original blanks.

[Geneva BPU Bb 1476; BC 56/3].

 

WorldCat Entries: [OCLC 258225836; 13274419; 311362080; 630251885; 1106691687; 1238076475; 552037008; 634161989]

 

Bibliography:

Higman, F., Jan 1997. The Works of John Calvin on microfiche. Institut d'Histoire de la Réformation. pp.10, III, 6. Available at: Calvin University, online.

(where described thus: "Ed.1 of the assembled commentaries on the NT Epis [...]. Assembles Calvin's commentaries, which had been published separately from 1540 on.")

Parker, T.H.L., 1993. Calvin's New Testament Commentaries. 2nd ed. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press.

Peter, R. & Gilmont, J.-F. Bibliotheca Calviniana, Les oeuvres de Jean Calvin publiées au XVIe siècle.

(entry 56/3)