ANSELME DE CANTORBERRY Saint Sancti Anselmi ex Beccensi abbate Cantuarensis archiepiscopi Opera : Nex non Eadmeri monachi cantuarensis Historia alia opuscula; labore ac studio D. Gabrielis Geberon… expurgata & aucta.

Brunet, I, 304 (note).

Rare first edition of the works of Saint Anselm, revised by Gabriel Bergeron (1628-1711). Magnificent copy bound for Jean-Baptiste Colbert.

Anselm of Canterbury, also known as Anselm of Bec because of his membership as a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Notre-Dame du Bec in Normandy, is one of the major writers of the medieval West. He is regarded by some as the founder of scholastic theology and the ontological argument, an argument that seeks to prove the existence of God.

“A Benedictine monk of the congregation of Saint Maur…. Bergeron took care not only to see the old editions published two hundred years ago, but also the manuscripts in the famous libraries of France and England; he saw in that of Sieur Cotton the epistles of St. Anselm, which we did not have, and he formed a fourth book, which he added to the three that P. Picard had already published” (see Moréri).

Important provenance

A very fine copy bearing the arms of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683). Colbert began his career with the secretary of state Le Tellier in 1648 and ‘was immediately distinguished by Cardinal Mazarin, who employed him from November 1648 and appointed him successively conseiller d’état (1648), intendant of his household, intendant of the household of the Duc d’Anjou (1652), secretary of the queen’s commands (1654); Mazarin also entrusted him with diplomatic missions in Italy in 1659 and finally recommended him to Louis XIV when he died (1661), having showered him with benefits and appointed him as one of his executors… 

He was appointed Intendant of Finances in March 1661, then Controller of Finances at the end of the same year and Superintendent of the King’s Buildings, Art and Manufactures on 8 January 1664. He joined the Conseil du Commerce in August of the same year, was appointed head and president of the East India Company in March 1665, and was made Commander and Grand Treasurer of the King on 26 August 1665. He was appointed Secretary of State for the Departments of Marine and Commerce in 1668 and for the King’s Household in February 1669… An ardent bibliophile, Colbert had built up a library that was famous throughout Europe… The printed books were sold in 1728 by his grand-nephew, Charles-Eléonor Colbert, comte de Seignelay” (see OHR).

Very well-preserved copy bearing Colbert’s coat of arms, and with the handwritten note ‘Bibliotheca Colbertina’ on the title page.