Simon Martin, François Giry / Pierre Le Pautre - Les Vies des saints dont on fait l'office dans le cours de l'année. - 1683

Original edition of this important collection published by François Giry (1635-1688), presenting biographical notices of saints organized chronologically throughout the year.

Illustrated for each month of the year with a beautiful engraving by Pierre Le Pautre at the top of the 'monthly chronological tables,' totaling 12 engravings.

Two in-folio volumes, preserved in contemporary full brown calf bindings, with spine decorated with gilt compartments, tooling, and small tools, title pieces with gilt lettering. Text in two columns. Title pages in red and black, adorned with an engraved vignette.

Good condition, suitable set. Volume I bound backwards. Bindings show defects with missing leather at the heads, cuts, and corners (rounded). A leaf of the table is detached, with a small tear in the margin of a page without loss of text, work of worms along the margins on about twenty leaves, some browned pages, scattered foxing without severity. Good copy and very fine print of the engravings.
Ex libris manuscript on the title pages.

This work, begun by Simon Martin, represented a notable progress compared to earlier collections and is still used today.

We join two engravings separately (from another work).

Simon Martin, François Giry / Pierre Le Pautre
The Lives of the saints whose feast days are observed throughout the year.
Paris, at Frederic Leonard's, 1683
2 volumes in folio (41x28cm), of 1835 pages + 2038 pages + xlii (table)