Novveav livre d'Eglise à l'vsage de Rome, pour la commodité vniverselle des Laiques. Premiere Edition reduite en un Volume... Auec un Exercice du Chrestien pour les Ames deuotes... Enrichy de nouuelles Figures

12mo (147 x 81 mm). [60], 911, [1], clxviii pages. Engraved frontispiece and 12 engraved plates. Red and black printing. Woodcut tailpieces. Tear to the Table des festes mobiles (a5), trace of mold in gutter of pp. 896-7. Contemporary calf, sides framed in double gilt fillets, central Arma Christi motif, and the gold-stamped name Charles (on front cover) de Meru (on lower cover) at top within double fillet cartouches, spine paneled in compartments with gilt fleurons, edges gilt (rubbed), front pastedown covered with early childish scribbles. Provenance: Charles de Meru, supra-libros; Du Coz, signature on front flyleaf.

A breviary and general devotional guide in a contemporary binding bearing the "Croix de la Passion," or Arma Christi (instruments of Christ's Passion). This motif first appeared on French bookbindings the early 16th century, and continued to appear throughout the 17th century on bindings of all manner of liturgical and religious books, from luxurious editions to popular impressions, with or without other stamps. In this it outlasted other religious binding motifs used in the late 16th century, such as Crucifixion and Annunciation medallions, whose popularity proved short-lived (Le Bars, pp. 159 & 415).

Printed in small types, the edition is ornamented with engravings, woodcut tailpieces, several printed in red or red & black.

We have not been able to identify the Charles de Meru whose name is lettered in gold at the top of the covers. Bookbinding stamps of the Croix de la Passion were used by some confraternities in France, such as the (slightly later) Confraternity of the Penitents of the Holy Cross (Confraternité des Penitents de la Sainte-Croix, Mort et Passion de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ); with the names of the confrères who owned the books similarly stamped on the binding (cf. Baudrier & Galle, Armorial des bibliophiles de Lyonnais, Forez, Beaujolais et Dombes, 1907, vol. I, p. 156).

Cf. Fabienne Le Bars, "`Miserere mei Deus... reliures funèbres et macabres en France du XVI au XVIIIe siècle,"in Le Livre et la Mort, XIVe-XVIII siècle (Paris: Editions des Cendres 2019), pp. 158-163, & item 70B, p. 414.