12mo. In two volumes. [4], 257, [1]; [4], 283pp, [5]. Later gilt-tooled half-calf, marbled boards, contrasting black morocco lettering-pieces. Lightly rubbed. Scattered spotting. Inked ownership inscriptions of J. T. Coleridge to title of Vol. I and half-title of Vol. II.

Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (1627-1704), French theologian and court preacher to Louis XIV. First printed in 1681, Discours sur l'histoire universelle is regarded by the Roman Catholic Church to be an actualisation and continuation of St. Augustine of Hippo's De Civitate Dei, regarding as it does metaphysical universal history to be the result of the spiritual conflict between God and the forces of evil. Composed for the instruction of his student the Grand Dauphin, the work charts the events which resulted in the formation of the Christian Church, emphasising the longevity of religion over the empires of man. Bossuet concludes that it is the will of the Lord, acted out through divine providence, that pagan civilisations should fall whilst Christian peoples endure.

John Taylor Coleridge (1790-1876), nephew of the Romantic poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, judge, and sometime editor of the Quarterly Review.