THE CEREMONIES AND RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS OF THE VARIOUS NATIONS OF THE KNOWN WORLD: TOGETHER WITH HISTORICAL ANNOTATIONS, AND SEVERAL CURIOUS DISCOURSES EQUALLY INSTRUCTIVE AND ENTERTAINING. WRITTEN ORIGINALLY IN FRENCH, AND ILLUSTRATED WITH A LARGE NUMBER OF

by [Picart, Bernard]:

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Book desription: London: Printed by William Jackson, for Claude Du Bosc, 1733-1739.. Seven volumes bound in six. [4],viii,[8],450,[12]; [10],364,[14]; [14],514,[14]; [6],470,[24]; [4],228,[6]; [10],164,[8]pp. plus 233 engraved plates (thirty-one double-page or folding). Folio. Contemporary mottled calf, spine compartments gilt, brown morocco labels stamped in gilt, small paper labels with inscribed numbers at bottom of spines. Boards and spines slightly worn. From the library of the Earls of Macclesfield, with 1860 engraved bookplate on front pastedown and embossed stamp of Earls of Macclesfield on half title, titlepage, and following one or two leaves in each volume. Internally very clean and fresh, with light offsetting from plates (as expected), occasional very minor instances of slight foxing. Minor worm holes in outer margins of second volume (not affecting text or images), leaves 6H2-6O2 torn with slight loss of blank margin. A near fine copy. A remarkable set from the Library of the Earls of Macclesfield of the English translation of this beautifully illustrated extensive compilation on the religious ceremonies and customs of peoples throughout the world. Printed in London between 1733 and 1739 (the first volumes were originally issued in 1731), the work is a translation of CÉRÉMONIES ET COUTUMES RELIGIEUSES DE TOUS LES PEUPLES DU MONDE, first published in Amsterdam between 1723 and 1743. Originally edited and published by Jean Frédéric Bernard, authorship of the work has often been attributed to him. It is actually a compilation of edited texts by a number of French authors concerned with religious practices in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the East Indies. The engravings were designed by Bernard Picart, a French- born engraver who moved to Amsterdam and eventually collaborated on this project until his death in 1733. Within the stated topic of religious ceremonies and customs, a variety of social habits and interactions are described, many accompanied by marvellous, if often imaginative, engravings. "Some of the illustrations...are rather fanciful, placing Indians in settings that suggest ancient Roman architecture and statuary or traditional European carpentry, furniture, and decorative wooden floors. Bernard's collection treats such individual topics as combat, sacrifices, religion, funeral customs, romance, and marriage...drawing from disparate sources for their interest value...It is a diverse collection of materials drawn from many writers, forming something like an early coffee-table book. Indian groups throughout the known American territory are treated" - Landis. Volumes three and four of the present set focus on the "ceremonies of the idolatrous nations," with the first two hundred pages of the third volume dedicated to American Indians. Descriptions of idolatry, soothsayers, priests, and prophecies as well as languages, clothing, ornaments, marriage, childbirth, diseases, lawsuits, slaves, and death, are provided. The thirty-four engravings in this section include illustrations of natives from Canada, Virginia, Florida, Hispaniola, Mexico, Venezuela, the Caribbean, and Peru engaged in a wide variety of activities. The remainder of the third and fourth volumes describe practices in India, the East Indies, Persia, and Africa. Volumes one, two, and five through seven are dedicated to the ceremonies of Jews, Roman Catholics (including the Inquisition), Greeks, Protestants, the Church of England, Presbyterians, Anabaptists, Quakers, and Muslims. A mid-18th-century encyclopedic compendium of religious practices around the world, illustrated throughout with engaging, if sometimes fanciful, engravings. From the Library of the Earls of Macclesfield, uniformly bound in contemporary mottled and decorated calf. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 733/66. SABIN 4934 (1731-1739 ed). LANDIS, THE LITERATURE OF THE ENCOUNTER 31 (Amsterdam 1723 ed). ESTC t137604. LOWNDES 1862. HILER 708. LIPPERHEIDE 1808.

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