RARE BOOK & COLLECTORS’ SALE 12th -13th December 2023

104 IMPERFECTIONS NOT STATED Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 743. A Truly Magnificent Copy of This Rarity Binding: Burke, Thomas O.P. (de Burgo) Hibernia Dominicana, Sive Historia Provinciae Hiberniae Ordinis Praedicatorum, ... 4to Coloniae Agrippinae (Ex Typographia Metternichiana sub Signo Gryphi) 1762. First Edition. List of subscribers, this copy also contains Pages 137-147, part of Seventh Chapter, dealing with the State of the Protestants of Ireland under the Reign of James II, which is cancelled in most copies. Bound in contemporary reddish-brown morocco and lavishly tooled in gold in both covers by the Vatican Bindery : See A.R.A. Hobson, ‘ French and Italian Bindings in the collection of Major Abbey,’ (privately printed in 1950) for a full account of this workshop. Lacks both free marble ends, all fore- edges gilded and gauffred. Spine lettered De Burgo / Hibernia / Dominicana. A later professional reback has the original spine laid down. Ex. Libris: Fr. Thomas Bonnet, O.P. (1825-1895) a noted Dominican scholar who lived in Marseilles, with his book label. The Title also bears two small oval stamps of the Dominican mother - house in Rome. (1) * Thomas Burke was born in Dublin in 1709/10 and sent to Rome in 1724 to study for the priesthood with the Dominican order. After ordination he taught in S. Clement’s in Rome and met distinguished scholars and cardinals of the Curia, including the papal nephew Cardinal Neri Corsini, Secretary of State and patron of the architect Allesandro Galilei, the builder of the façade of St. John Laterano in Rome (and also responsible for the design of Castletown House). Fr. Burke was commissioned to write the history of the Dominican Order after he returned to Ireland in 1743 and worked in the Dominican House in Dublin. In 1759 he was appointed Catholic Bishop of Ossory, no doubt his advancement was helped by his connections with the Roman Curia. Interestingly the Protestant Bishop of Ossory at the time was the famous traveller and writer, Richard Pococke (1756- 1765) with whom Burke developed friendly relations. Bishop Burke’s book Hibernia Dominicana came out in 1762 and dedicated to Cardinal Neri Corsini, but the imprint was given to the Cologne printing house of Metternich, while it is now generally accepted that it was actually printed in Ireland. The use of a fictitious imprint was occasionally resorted to because of fear of the Penal Laws. However the only harm to Burke came, not from the government, but from his fellow Irish Bishops when they ordered that certain pages from Hibernia Dominicana be ripped out because of the perceived offence they caused, thus ensuring the book’s lasting fame. Some time after the book’s appearance the author sent fifty copies to Rome for sale and presentation to colleagues and friends. A small number were specially bound up in the Vatican bindery for presentation to high ranking cardinals in the Curia, including the dedication copy to Nerio Corsini, the Papal Nephew and “Protector of Ireland.” About four or five copies survive in de luxe bindings of which the present copy is the only one in a private collection. * An incredible survivor in the finest state. €4000 - €6000