LÉGER (Jean). - Lot 42

LÉGER (Jean). Histoire générale des églises évangéliques des vallées de Piémont; ou vaudoises. Leiden: Jean Le Carpentier, 1669. - 2 parts in one folio volume, 371 x 231: frontispiece, (17 ff.), 212 pp. 1 portrait, 1 map; (8 ff.), 385 pp. (3 ff.). Speckled brown calf, spine ribbed and ornamented, spotted edges (contemporary binding). First edition of this major work on the persecution of the Waldensians, a pre-Reformation religious group that lived in the alpine valleys of Piedmont in Italy. Its author is the pastor and historian Jean Léger (1625-1670), who witnessed the "Waldensian Easter", the violent and bloody repression carried out in 1655 by the Duchy of Savoy against the people of the Waldensian valleys, which is the main subject of the book. He was forced to take refuge in Geneva, then in the Netherlands. He became pastor of the Walloon church in Leiden, where he died in 1669, shortly after writing this seminal work. The work is divided into two parts. The first is devoted to the historical aspect of the evangelical churches in the Piedmont valleys, and the second, more extensive, deals with the persecutions they suffered. Its well-documented content and the numerous accounts of the atrocities endured by this community succeeded in arousing a wave of indignation throughout Europe, and helped to draw international attention to their situation. As such, it is a veritable historical reference for understanding the persecution of religious minorities in Europe. The illustrations include an allegorical frontispiece, here correctly addressed to Leiden and dated 1669, an out-of-text portrait of the author, a fold-out map of the three valleys of Piedmont, engraved by Jean Pruthenus Somer after Valerius Crassus, dated 1668, and 34 very fine engravings in the text, including 5 in the first part, 4 of which depict Alpine animals, and 29 in the second. The engravings in the second part show, for the first 26, the atrocities of the massacres of 1655. Measuring approximately 95 x 140 mm, they are unsigned. The last three, found on pages 334, 335 and 336, depict the martyrdom of Etienne Charlin and the tortures inflicted by Inquisitor Panza. Measuring approximately 160 x 145 mm, they were produced by Cornelis Elondts, or Elandts, or Elandt (1641-1687), a Dutch painter, surveyor, cartographer and engraver from the city of The Hague. A good copy in contemporary binding. Small split at one of the spine ends, some spotting and rare minor worm damage to the binding. Interior perfectly preserved.