Œuvres

In-folio of (4) ff., 311 pp., (4) pp. Full contemporary limp vellum, calligraphic title on spine. Contemporary binding.

334 x 220 mm.

Justinus [Saint Justin]. Works.Paris, Robert Estienne, 1551.

Original first collected edition of the Works of Saint Justin printed by Robert Estienne from a manuscript in the Royal Library, remarkably printed with the king’s famous Greek type by Claude Garamond.

This edition brings together the two Apologies, the Dialogue with Tryphon as well as several other apocryphal treatises.

Renouard, 79:2; Schreiber, 107; Mortimer (Harvard), 335; Hoffmann, II, 502-503; Adams, J-494; Graesse, Trésor de livres rares et précieux, III, 515; A. de Montor, Encyclopedia, XV, pp.562-563; J. L. Geoffroy, Works of Jean Racine, 1808, I, XV and p.202.

Exceptional and unique copy once belonging to Racine bearing his autograph signature on the title page.

“It is well known that the gentlemen of Port-Royal valued the Greek language even more than Latin and that they turned their brilliant student into an excellent Hellenist.” (Jacques Guérin).

“Racine was not content to merely read the ancients, but translated them, commented on them, and made extracts from them—thus making their works part of his own substance.

He translated ‘Plato’s Symposium’, made several extracts from Saint Basil and from a large number of Greek and Latin authors. The Greek and Latin books read by Racine have become objects of curiosity and veneration.

In his preface to ‘Alexander the Great, a tragedy, 1665’, Racine reveals that the love story of Alexander and Cleophile is not his invention:

“Justin reports this as well as Quintus Curtius. These two historians relate that a queen in India, named Cleophile, surrendered to this prince with the city he was besieging, and that he restored her to her throne in recognition of her beauty. She had a son, whom she named Alexander.” Racine then cites the exact words of Saint Justin (J.L.Geoffroy).

“It was necessary to wait for Robert Estienne’s edition of 1551 in order to read the complete works of Saint Justin” (Renouard).

“The best edition of the works of Saint Justin” (Artaud de Montor).

One of the most famous apologetic Fathers and the oldest of all, Saint Justin was born in Flavia, Samaria, toward the end of the first century. He first devoted himself zealously to the study of philosophy: but as the Stoics, Peripatetics, Pythagoreans, and Platonists to whom he turned were unable to give him a satisfactory explanation of the nature of God and His perfections, of the nature and destiny of the soul, he turned to Christianity, where he found a solution to these great mysteries.

He embraced the Christian religion without renouncing the philosopher's cloak.

Justin composed two Apologies which he presented to Antoninus Pius around 139 and to Marcus Aurelius around 162.

“In these works, of which only one has come down to us complete, he appeals to the charity of Christians, to their patience in suffering; he recounts what took place in their assemblies.He seeks to prove that Christianity is in accord with reason and with the doctrines of the most famous Greek philosophers. Already in these apologies, one sees the blend of Christian ideas and Neoplatonic opinions that later characterized the school of Alexandria.Justin suffered martyrdom in Rome in the year 165.His works offer a precious source to anyone wishing to study the history of the early centuries of the Church” (A. de Montor).

Racine, a Jansenist, advocated a return to religion, to the sources, and to the original texts.

The work of Saint Justin must have been one of the cornerstone texts of his beliefs.

Provenance: Libraries of Jean Racine, with autograph signature on the title page, Auger (ex-libris) and Paul-Louis Weiller.