Sancti Caecilii Cypriani Episcope Carthaginensis et martyris Opera ad MSS. Codices recognita & illustrate studio ac labore Stephani Baluzii Tutelensis. by CYPRIANUS, Caecilius - 1726

Paris: Ex Typographia Regia, 1726. Hardcover. See Description. Tall folio. pp. [2], cxlvii, [8], 608, cccxlvi, [25]. With title page vignette and head and tail pieces. Text in Latin. Bound in full blind stamped period vellum with 7 raised bands on the spine. Front hinge is professionally repaired / strengthened. Pages are generally clean and crisp with a periodic spot of foxing (or miniscule ash burn); an occasional leaf is lightly age-toned. Several pages towards the end of the volume are numbered and signed twice (i.e. 543 544). A front blank fly-leaf contains a 5 x 32 mm hole and an inscription in a small early hand on the verso. Caecilius Cyprianus or St. Cyprian (200-258 c.e.) was Bishop of Carthage and important early Church father. He was beheaded in 258 during the persecution of Christians instigated by the Roman emperor Valerian. Many of Cyprian's writings still exist. His epistles and pastoral letters are an important source of early Church history. He also wrote on the various Church schisms and controversies of the time [EB11]. A section of spurious works attributed to Cyprian such as the "Confessio Sancti Cypriani" is also included. Edited by French scholar Etienne Baluze or Stephanus Baluzius (1630-1718) with an extensive section of notes and commentary on the texts. [Brunet II, 459 - "Bonne edition"; Graesse II, p. 316].