VITAE PAPARUM AVENIONENSIUM: Hoc Est HISTORIA PONTIFICUM ROMANORUM Qui in Gallia Sederunt AB Anno Christi MCCCV Usque Ad Annum MCCCXCIV. By STEPHANUS BALUZIUS.

[Lives of the Avignon Popes: That Is, the History of the Roman Pontiffs Who Resided in France from the Year of Christ 1305 to the Year 1394. By Étienne Baluze.]

TOMUS PRIMUS / TOMI PRIMI -(Tome One).

VELLUM BOUND Ecclesiastical Papal History. VERY SCARCE 1693 FIRST EDITION.

PARISIIS (Paris) : Apud Franciscum Muguet Regis, Cleri Gallicani. MDCXCIII (1693). First Edition. The book was reprinted, most notably in 1916 and 1928. Those later editions can be found, but the 1693 first edition is rather scarce.

Vellum Covers, manuscript titling on the spine, 8" x 10".

Pagination: [1 leaf] front free endpaper, [1] title page, [1] blank verso, [4] Epistola, [16] Prefatio, [1] blank, [1] PLATE of PAPAL COINAGE, 1,478 numbered columns / 739 pages (text pages numbered by column only, two columns per page), [30] Index and Errata.

Collated page for page with the 1693 First Edition Copy in the Rare Book Holdings of the Montserrat Abbey Library. That copy was digitized in 2011.

ASSOCIATION COPY: There is THE bookplate of JACOBI MANZONIi on the upper corner of the front pastedown.

Jacobi Manzoni / Giacomo Manzoni, was an important Italian book collector. Manzoni was born in 1816 in Lugo, Romagna, into an aristocratic family. He was involved in many aspects of Italian life, but his main pursuit, which he began at a very early age, was collecting books and manuscripts. At the time of his death in 1889, he left a library of approximately 25,000 rare and highly valued volumes. This is one of those volumes.

Condition: The Vellum Covers have yellowed and toned, the spine has substantially darkened, there is some peeling and cracking to the covers' edges and 2" of splitting at the top and bottom of the spine folds, the edges and spine ends are shelf worn and rubbed through at places, nonetheless the covers are solid, doing their job well, and attractive in a Harry Potter's Hogwarts Library way. There is a bit of writing on the endpapers, a small bookplate to the front pastedown (as noted above) and a small label with numbers to the rear pastedown;

the front free endpaper is creased, the title page has some edge wear and small edge chips, there is light toning and foxing throughout, overall the inner pages are very nice - tight, bright, clean, and unmarked.

A solid, complete, nice copy in original vellum of this important and scarce book, made bibliographically interesting with the bookplate of Jacobi Manzoni.