A TREATISE OF THE SIBYLS, so highly celebrated, as well by the antient heathens, as the holy fathers of the church; giving an accompt of the names, and number of the Sibyls, of their qualities, the form and matter of their verses; by BLONDEL, David.: - 1661

London, printed by T(homas) R(oycroft) for the author, 1661.. as also of the books now extant under their names, and the errours crept into Christian religion, from the impostures contained therein, particularly, concerning the state of the just, and unjust after death. ... Englished by J. Davies. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, 1661. Folio, 285 x 185 mm, 11¼ x 7¼ inches, pages: (4), 293, (7), headpieces and decorated initials to chapter headings, bound in full contemporary calf, blind-tooled border to covers, rebacked in lighter leather, gilt rules and original gilt lettered label to spine, new endpapers. Covers slightly marked, small scrape to leather on lower cover, engraved armorial bookplate preserved on front pastedown (Thomas Fuller M.D. (1634-1734) physician and preacher who published a compilation of proverbs entitled Gnomologia), 1 page has small pale ink stain, just affecting 1 word, 1 small corner tip torn off, otherwise text clean and binding tight and firm. A very good copy. DAVID BLONDEL (1591-1655), was a French Protestant clergyman, historian and classical scholar. In 1650 he succeeded G. J. Vossius in the professorship of history at Amsterdam. His works were very numerous; in some of them he showed a remarkable critical faculty, as in his dissertation on Pope Joan (1647, 1657), in which he came to the conclusion, now universally accepted, that the whole story is a mere myth. Considerable Protestant indignation was excited against him on account of this book. His work on the Sibyls of classical times was first published in French in 1649. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.