PLINY, Caecilius Secundus, Gaius

by Caecilius Secundus, Gaius Pliny

£7,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

A finely bound copy of this rare edition of the letters of Pliny edited by Issac Casaubon with tremendous early North American provenance; from the library of Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, with his arms as Bishop of Quebec and Nouvelle France. He was the second Bishop of Qu ébec and Nouvelle France, and served from 1685-1727, over forty years, at one of the most critical periods of the provinces history. The binding is probably contemporary to the printing so Saint-Vallier s arms and the cover gilding were almost certainly added after 1688 when he was officially consecrated as Bishop, perhaps even during his time in North America, and most probably well before 1713 when he gave up the Bishop s Palace and retreated to the Hopital General to live in a single room with few belongings - though including a few shelves of books. In 1684 Abb é Saint-Vallier was 31 and already his appointment to a see in France was generally anticipated. At that time his spiritual director, the Jesuit Father Le Valois.. spoke to him of the see of Quebec. The incumbent of the see, Bishop Laval, was thinking of resigning. He proposed to come to France to ask Louis XIV to choose a successor for him. Would Abb é Saint-Vallier agree to be this successor? An ambitious priest would certainly have refused. Created just ten years before, situated two or three months sailing time from France, burdened with a harsh climate, the diocese of Quebec in 1684 was perhaps the most wretched

• Binding: Hardcover

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