3 Volumes. xii, 454; xiv, 532; xii, 600 pp. Facsimiles, plates from photographs and other sources. (8vo) 22x14 cm (8½x5½"), half-calf with marbled boards, spine tooled and lettered in gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers. First Edition.
An assessment of the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII by Count Eduardo Soderini. Leo was well known for his intellectualism and his attempts to define the position of the Catholic Church with regard to modern thinking. In his famous 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum, Pope Leo outlined the rights of workers to a fair wage, safe working conditions, and the formation of labor unions, while affirming the rights of property and free enterprise, opposing both Marxism and laissez-faire capitalism.