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Small 8vo. [xviii], 559, [85]; 261, [9] pp. 13 Bks. in 2 pts. in 1 volume. Portrait frontispiece engraved by Pieter Sluiter, engraved title-page preceding second title-page printed in red and black, engraved initials, head and tail-pieces, and title-page vignettes, indices. Contemporary full blind-stamped mottled calf, 4 raised bands; corners worn, rear cover rubbed, spine head torn, spine foot missing a piece, without pastedowns. Ownership signature of John Lomery[?]. RARE. Very good. "Editio ultima" of Petauâ  s Rationarium Temporum (first published in 1633), an abridgement of his Doctrina Temporum (1627). "Petavius, in 1633, published an abridgment of his chronological system, entitled Rationarium Temporum, to which he subjoined a table of events down to his own time, in which the larger work had only been carried to the fall of the empire. This abridgment is better known and generally more useful than the former" (Hallam, p. 380). Petau "entered into the society of Jesuits at the age of 22, and taught rhetoric and theology at their college in Paris with extraordinary reputation. He was perfectly versed in the learned languages, and well acquainted with the sciences; but his particular study was chronology, and it is upon his writings on that topic that his literary fame is chiefly founded. After he had made himself known by several learned publications, Philip IV. of Spain applied to the general of his order to send him to occupy a professorship in the Imperial college of Madrid. Petau remonstrated that his state of health would not permit him to travel, nor to reside in so hot a climate; and his excuse was admitted. In fact, France was a much fitter residence for him than Spain, in which last country he could neither have written with any degree of freedom, nor have got his works printed. He afterwards refused a more tempting invitation to Rome, from Urban VIII., who had a design of raising him to the purple. Devoting himself entirely to letters, he continued to live in his cell in the college of Clermont, where he died in 1652, in his 70th year. He had been a great sufferer from the stone, so that he regarded death as a desirable release. When the physician, Guy Patin, informed him that his end was just at hand, Petau caused a copy of his "Rationarium Temporum" to be brought, and presented it to him as a recompence for his good news" (Aikin, et al., p. 67). REFERENCES: Aikin, John, et al. [eds.], General Biography, Vol. VIII, London: Printed for John Stockdale, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, et al., 1813; Hallam, Henry, Hallamâ  s Works, Vol. V, New York: A.C. Armstrong and Son, 1884. Seller Inventory # LLV1920
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