Histoire de l'estat et republiques des Druides, Eubages Saronides, Bardes, Vacies, anciens François, Gouverneurs des païs de la Gaule, depuis le deluge universel, jusques à la venuë de Jesus-Christ en ce monde. Compris en deux livres [...]

Full title: Histoire de l'estat et republiques des Druides, Eubages Saronides, Bardes, Vacies, anciens François, Gouverneurs des païs de la Gaule, depuis le deluge universel, jusques à la venuë de Jesus-Christ en ce monde. Compris en deux livres, contenans leurs Loix, Police, Ordonnances tant en l'estat Ecclesiastique que Seculier. P.F. Noël Talepied lecteur de Pontoyse.

2 parts in one 8vo. ff. [22], 124 (numbered ff. 1-8, pp. 9-24, ff. 25-120); ff. 84. Signatures: ã⁸ ẽ⁸ ĩ⁶ A⁸ B-C⁴ D-P⁸; A-K⁸ L⁴. Woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. Contemporary limp vellum; portion of rear cover torn off. On title page is the partly indecipherable contemporary ownership inscription of a canon of the diocese of Langres (in northeastern France).

First and very rare edition of an early history of druidism and druids. The author, the Capuchin monk Noël Taillepied (1540-1589), taught theology and produced several works that have all become quite rare, including one on phantoms and spirits (Psichologie ou traîté de l'apparition des esprits [Rouen, 1598]). The first part deals with the various classes of Druids, their customs, the manners in which they offered sacrifices to the gods, and their ability to foretell future events. The second part, an account of the early French people including a chronology of the kings of Gaul from the Great Flood to the birth of Christ, is largely fanciful. See A. Cioranescu, Bibliographie de la littérature française du dix-septième siècle. Paris, 1965, vol. I, no. 20995; A.L. Caillet, Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou occultes. Paris, 1912, 10519.

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