PICART, Bernard, & Jean Frederic Bernard.

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The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Several [from vol. IV, Various] Nations of the Known World. First editions in English. Picart and Bernard's handsome work is a beautifully illustrated survey of religious observances around the world, marking "a major turning point in European attitudes toward religious belief" (Hunt, p. 1). First published in Amsterdam as Ceremonies et Coutumes Religieuses de tous les Peuples du Monde (1723-37). The monumental project was the result of a collaboration between Europe's leading engraver, Bernard Picart, and the publisher and author Jean Frederic Bernard. Both men were Protestant refugees driven by the Counter-Reformation from France to Amsterdam, where, in a fertile milieu of radicals and free-thinkers.An edition in English of three volumes only was published in 1731 by Nicholas Prevost under the title The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Several Nations of the Known World. Claude du Bosc completed the translation as The Ceremonies and Religious Customs of the Various Nations of the Known World, reprinting Prevost's edition and adding a further four volumes. This set marries the first edition of Prevost with the four volumes of du Bosc's continuation. Volume IV is erroneously numbered "vol. IV, part II" on the title page.As a reference book it was unprecedented: "no other work before then had ever attempted, in word and image, such a grand sweep of human religions" (ibid. p. 1). But as a meditation on culture, it was revolutio

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