Catholic University’s Rare Books Department, part of Special Collections, had another great year with targeted acquisitions via purchase, with eight items from five national and one international professional book sellers. Four of our recent wares are detailed below; two others were discussed in a recent post about the generous bequest of Msgr. Robert Trisco, and two more will be discussed in future posts.

The first item, purchased from Patrick Olson Rare Books of Massachusetts, is Pentateuchus Moysi…, the first volume of a multivolume pocket Bible  published in Paris by Simon de Colines in 1527. Paris pioneered small-format Vulgate Bibles in the 1520s, and this volume, measuring approximately 4.5 by 3 inches, is from the second of some fifty such editions printed by Colines. This particular volume is an early English binding with boards paneled with gilt and blind frames and with gilt and blind tooling on the spine. Most notably, the volume contains brief marginalia (likely cross-referencing) on more than 80 pages. There is an early ownership signature of “John Willson” on the title page. He was most likely an English Recusant, a stubborn minority that clung to the Catholic faith after the English Reformation imposed its new Anglican religion on the kingdom. Although the name is common, it is possible that this is the recusant John Wilson of Bunbury imprisoned in the 1590s. (1)

The second item, obtained from RareTom.Com of Oregon, is Indicis rerum omnium praecipuarum by Franciscus Fontanus (Venetiis: Apud Io. Baptistam & Io. Bernardum Sessam, fratres). This volume, a comprehensive index to the works of noted Spanish theologian Alonso Tostado (1410-1455) prepared by Franciscus Fontanus, is most notable not for its contents, but for its binding, which illuminates its provenance. Both the front and rear boards bear the crest of Sancho Dávila y Toledo (1546-1625). Toledo rose to the rank of bishop in 1591, but this volume was probably bound before that happened, as the galero (hat) above the crest is ornamented with six tassels, rather than the twelve tassels we would expect for a bishop. The elaborate fore-edge painting on this volume indicates that it also belonged for a time in the collection of Toledo’s brother, Gómez Dávila y Toledo, the Marques of Astorga. The library of the Marques of Astorga is famous for its use of fore-edge paintings in this style to indicate provenance. (2)

Our third object, from Kline Books of California, is Chevalier de G. Poesies sur la Constitution Unigenitus (Amsterdam: Chez P. Belhumeur, 1724). It is a revised second edition in two volumes, with titles in red and black. It is bound in contemporary calf with raised bands and richly gilt spines and is a compilation of generally satirical pro-Jansenist writings that includes a controversial board game (with five pages of rules) on a folding plate, devised on the pattern of the Game of Goose.  The point of the game is to mock the authority of the Church and in particular that of the Pope and of his bull. For example, the columns on either side of the game board are headed by a cartoon depicting the Pope and a group of cardinals, each represented by a goose wearing a mitre. Below the lefthand cartoon is a quotation from Gregory of Nazianzus, fourth-century Archbishop of Constantinople, who referred to the rowdy Council of Constantinople (381 AD) as a noisy gathering of cackling geese. Game examples include space 15, which shows a torn robe symbolizing Church schism, and space 40, a prison where the player must wait until a throw of 5, which multiplied by 3 will lead to King Louis XV and deliverance (Louis was seen as a force for positive change and re-unifying the Church). The death space at 58 shows the skeleton of Pope Clement XI sitting in an armchair wearing his papal tiara and raising his bony hand to bless an infant at his feet, which represents the Unigenitus bull. The publishers were thrown into the Bastille and the game still has shock value due to the force of its imagery. (3)

The fourth example, from Cotter Books of Texas, is a manuscript prayer book, or Recueil des Prieres, copied by Paris Opera dancer Elisabeth-Claire Leduc sometime before 6 March 1792. This compact volume, abandoned around the time of the French Revolution, is bound in contemporary maroon morocco with Leduc’s armorial in the center of each board. In 1741, Leduc became the mistress of Louis de Bourbon-Conde, Comte de Clermont, known for his violent possessiveness. Her story has intrigue from the underground passage connecting her and Clermont’s residences to her appearance draped in diamonds at a widely satirized event in Boulogne. Misogynistic accounts of her include descriptions of her large collection of books that critics considered an expression of contemporary fashion for libraries among upper-class women. This diminutive manuscript reflects her late-in-life devotional turn. In it, Leduc renounces Satan and commits to living as a Christian, renewing vows made at confession, communion, and throughout her life.

Thank you to the Special Collections and Library staff who help make these purchase acquisitions possible. We also appreciate the university faculty members who wisely advise us on potential books and, as always, our many generous donors of rare books and related materials.

For more information on these and many others items in Rare Books at Catholic University’s Special Collections, please email lib-rarebooks@cua.edu.

Endnotes:

(1) Patrick Olson Catalog, 2026.

(2) RareTom.Com Catalog, 2026

(3) Kline Books Catalog, 2026

(4) Cotter Books Catalog, 2026.

(5) Vera Effigie della Miracolosa Beata Vergine posta nella chiesa del Pino di
Cervia (in English: True Effigy of the Miraculous Blessed Virgin placed in Cervia’s Church of the Pine). An important 18th-century engraved woodblock printing showing a Madonna with Child wearing a starry cloak, in the act of breastfeeding her baby, known as “Madonna del Pino di Cervia.” about 14 x 9 inches, from Cervia, Italy, to be described in detail in a later blog post.

(6) El Diamante del Cristiano (The Christian Diamond; Barcelona: Librería Española, 1851), purchased from Phillip Pirages of Oregon. This little Spanish prayer book, of a type popular in the 19th century, is bound in contemporary claret-colored velvet and embroidered with silver wire. To be more fully described in a separate blog post.

(7) The Diary of a Papal Master of Ceremonies compiled by Master of Apostolic Ceremonies Francesco Gaetano Diversini, 1772, from Cotter Books of Texas, and Lochmaier. Parrochiale curatorum. 1497, probably the second edition of the Passau canon’s pastoral manual, from Patrick Olsen Rare Books of Massachusetts, both described in a separate blog post by Sally Kendrick, Rare Books Librarian at Catholic U. Special thanks to Sally and Alexis Howlett for their assistance, especially for the images.