Jean Collin; Francoise Mazot
Paris: Chez F. Mazot, 1651-52.

First issue of this wholly engraved devotional work, with both text and illustrations engraved on copper rather than set in type. The engraved title, depicting Christ in the Garden of Olives, is signed by Jean Collin (1623-1701), the Reims engraver. 35 illustrated openings follow, each pairing a stage of the Mass with a corresponding episode from the Passion of Christ, the Mass scenes possibly deriving from earlier Continental devotional models while the ornamental borders are Collin’s own work, followed by four further single-page plates numbered 36 to 39. The volume continues with litanies, including engraved busts of Jesus Admirabilis and Mater Amabilis, the Litaniae de nomine Iesu signed by the engraver I. Durant, followed by the seven Penitential Psalms in historiated borders, additional prayers, and the engraved privilege dated 9 June 1651 and the imprint dated 20 September 1652. This collation identifies the book as the first issue of the first edition, preceding the later impressions bearing a 1653 privilege and the revised 1653 edition. Jeanne Duportal identified the work as one of three publications whose engravings best exemplify the character of French religious illustration in the mid-seventeenth century. The contemporary pointille gilt binding, decorated with fine dotted and curved tools and retaining its metal clasps, is entirely characteristic of luxury Parisian devotional bindings of the period.