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3 volumes, xxxii, 684, 60; [4], 638, 56; 643, 66, [2] pp. (Folio) 34x22 cm (13½x9") period vellum, raised spine bands, titles in period ink on spines, speckled edges.

These volumes formerly of Mount St. Alphonsus Seminary in Esopus, NY. with their stamps, pockets, etc. at front and rear. Henricum Spondanum, otherwise Henry Sponde or Henri de Sponde was a convert from Calvinism and Bishop of Pamiers. After studying humanities at the Calvinist college of Orthez, he accompanied the royal ambassador to Scotland and, upon his return, took up the study of jurisprudence. Convinced of the truth of the Catholic religion by the writings of Bellarmine and the instructions of Duperron he became a Catholic in 1595 and was later ordained a priest. This work is Sponde's continuation of the Venerable Baronius Caesar's master work Annales ecclesiastici a Christi nato ad annum 1198. Baronius Caesar was an Italian ecclesiastical historian and Cardinal. As a Vatican librarian, Baronius had access to the sources in the archives which accounts for the thorough nature of his work.