Bernard And Bruzen De La Martinère - General History Of Religious Ceremonies. 1741.

[BERNARD PICARD] - BERNARD (Jean-Frédéric), BRUZEN DE LA MARTINÈRE (Antoine-Augustin) - General history of ceremonies, mores, and religious customs of all the peoples of the world, represented in 243 figures drawn by the hand of Bernard Picard : with historical & curious explanations. Paris, Rollin, 1741; folio, XXVIII-386 + 470 + 422 + 414 + 430 + 455 + 427 pp. + approval and privilege, period bindings in full speckled calfskin, spine adorned with 6-ribbed flowers, edges painted red, title label in red morocco and volume number in brown morocco. The 7 volumes. Complete with full-page engravings (224) by Bernard Picart indicated at the end of the volume (the 243 engravings according to the bibliographies, which includes 2 engravings for the double pages). Bernard Picart or Picard, born in 1673 in Paris he lived rue Saint-Jacques, settled in Amsterdam in 1711 he lived in the Kalverstraat and where he died in 1733, is a French designer and engraver. The illustration of this text is his major work. He illustrated many works and interpreted in engraving the best artists: Bourdon, De Bry, Carracci, Coypel, Dürer, Van Dyck, Girardon, Le Guerchin, de Hooghe, Le Brun, Mignard, Le Parmesan, Poussin, Reni, Rembrandt, Rubens, Del Sarto, Tintoretto. Original edition. The text is in fact by Jean-Frédéric Bernard (1680-1752), son of a pastor who took refuge in Amsterdam and Bruzen de la Martinière (1662-1746). This work, in addition to being magnificently illustrated, takes the part of putting on an equal footing the religious ceremonies of all the peoples of the world. It is a complete panorama, a synthesis of the beliefs of all peoples and where the Catholic religion does not have the star, it is part of a set described like the others. This text founds religious anthropology by giving it a finally global approach, which for the 18th century is very courageous. This can no doubt be explained by the collaboration of Jean-Frédéric Bernard, a Protestant, and Bernard Picart, a Jansenist converted to Protestantism, while both were working in Amsterdam. Beautiful condition.