Semée of Barberini Bees
ESCOBAR, Bartolomé de. Conciones de festis Domini. Nunc primùm in lucem editae, & duplici indice illustratae. Pont-à-Mousson: Typis Sebastiani Cramoisy. 1625.
4to. Contemporary Roman red morocco, boards ruled in gilt to a panel design with floral corner pieces, spine similarly gilt-tooled and directly lettered in gilt, all over semée of gilt bees, edges gilt; pp. [16], 743 [i.e. 699], [1 (blank)], [116]; title page printed black and red, engraved vignette to title, woodcut initials, woodcut and typographic head- and tailpieces, ruled in red throughout; spine ends and corners expertly repaired, hinges cracked but holding firm, extremities a little worn; light uniform toning, light variable offsetting but generally very good; late 17th-century ownership inscription “Conventus S. Caroli ad 4 fontes de Urbe”, and 2 19th-century ink library stamps “BIBLIOTH. S. CAROLI AD QUAT. FONT” to title, modern armorial bookplate to pastedown (see below).
First edition, the splendidly bound dedication copy to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, of this collection of sermons by the Peruvian Jesuit Bartolomé de Escobar (1560-1624).
Born into a wealthy Sevillian family, Escobar moved with his parents to Peru at a young age. He studied law at the Royal College of San Martín in Lima before entering the Jesuit novitiate at the College of San Pablo in 1580. Ordained a priest, he devoted himself to preaching and the conversion of the natives, becoming one of only two Jesuit Quechua speakers at San Pablo. Escobar authored several liturgical works and sermon collections, published in Lyon, Paris, and Lisbon, and also edited the diaries of Pedro Mariño de Lobera (1528-1594), participant in the conquest of Chile, first printed in 1865.
Published posthumously, his Conciones de festis Domini is a dense collection of forty-one sermons in Latin, arranged according to the liturgical calendar – including the Transfiguration, Epiphany, Ascension, and the Invention of the True Cross – and accompanied by a detailed 116-page index. Of particular interest is the second sermon for the Feast of the Holy Trinity, in which Escobar reflects on the climates of the Americas in relation to classical scholarship: “We, who have come to these American lands from Europe, mock each other in our unbelief – for we see with our own eyes that in which the reasoning of the wisest has erred”.
The dedicatee of the book, Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1597-1679) was the nephew of Pope Urban VIII and a major bibliophile. His cultural pursuits flourished within his princely court and the academies under his patronage, and found lasting expression in the Biblioteca Barberini, which he greatly expanded from Pope Urban’s private collection. At his request, his librarian Lucas Holstenius (1596-1661) travelled across Europe to acquire rare books and manuscripts and to engage scholars such as Naudé, Vossius, Morin, Heinsius, Milton, and Ughelli, whom Barberini generously supported in Rome. His chief passions were literature and religious history; among his writings is an Italian translation of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, published anonymously in Rome in 1675.
Provenance:
1. Dedication copy to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, in a presentation binding decorated with a semée of Barberini bees (the family’s heraldic device); most likely the copy listed in the Index Bibliothecae qua Franciscus Barberinus … ad Quirinalem aedes magnificentiores reddidit (1681, II, p. 367).
2. Library of the Trinitarian convent of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in Rome, commissioned by Barberini from Francesco Borromini, along with the adjoining church (late 17th-century ownership inscription and two 19th-century ink stamps on the title page).
3. Giancarlo Veronesi Pesciolini, with his armorial bookplate on the front pastedown and ink stamp on the front free endpaper.
The Barberini Library, described by Mabillon as second only to the Vatican Library, was acquired by the Vatican in 1902.
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