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an old brown book with a gold seal on the coveran old book with a picture of a tree in the middlean old book with a black and white title on it
ALDE

129 - PLANTAVIT DE LA PAUSE (Jean de).
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Estimate €2,000 - €3,000
Sale commission
Description
PLANTAVIT DE LA PAUSE (Jean de). *Planta vitis, seu Thesaurus synonymicus hebraico-chaldaico rabbinicus*. Lodève, Arnaud Colomiez, 1644. Folio, red morocco, double gilt rule, coat of arms in the centre, decorated spine, plain edges (contemporary binding). A very rare first edition of this monumental dictionary of Hebrew terms from the Holy Scriptures, including their synonyms, Latin translations and supporting quotations from the Bible. The volume comprises 1,426 pages, printed in two or more columns in Hebrew and Latin. It is adorned with a beautiful frontispiece title page based on a work by Ambroise Frédeau, a lay brother at the Augustinian monastery in Toulouse, and a portrait of the author aged sixty-four, both engraved on copper by the Toulouse artist Jean Baron. Jean de Plantavit de La Pause (1579–1651) was one of the most illustrious bishops of Lodève, in Languedoc, and a highly erudite Orientalist. He established a printing press at his own expense in Lodève, at his country retreat in Prémarlet, which he entrusted to the care of the Toulouse printer Arnaud Colomiez, in order to publish his own works: *Thesaurus synonymicus* (1644), *Florilegium rabbinicum* (1644) and *Florilegium biblicum* (1645). These three works by Plantavit de La Pause were the first books to be printed in Lodève, and the only ones until the Revolution, according to Deschamps. The *Thesaurus synonymicus* is the first of these. A fine copy in red morocco leather bearing the author’s coat of arms. From the library of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Vincent in Metz, with a handwritten ex-libris of the period on the title page. A significant loss, sparing the text, on the crumpled half-title page. Spine faded, upper cap damaged, small tear in the second cover. A few scattered foxing spots and pinholes. Fürst, III, 106 – Brunet, IV, 689 – Deschamps, 730 – OHR, 1127.
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About the sale Fine antique books – A library in the Languedoc
Auction location
Auction time 10/20/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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