4to (9 1/4 x 6 3/8 in.; 235 x 162mm). [4], 110 [2], pages ruled in brown, woodcut initials, contemporary marginalia in brown ink, intermittent and minor dampstaining to lower margin. Full brown calf, covers with interlaced scrolls and finial arabesques, center panel bearing the arms of Bishop Bouvery of Angers within a scroll frame with pained borders, the intervening spaces thickly studded, compartment with gilt twining leaf pattern, borders gilt-ruled and painted in black red and silver, all edges gilt and gauffered; minor rubbing to upper joint. Full brown straight grain morocco slipcase, spine gilt-lettered.

Bishop Bouvery of Angers (binding bearing his arms) — Robert Hoe (his bookplate to front pastedown) 

Adams O-205; Turchetti, "Jean Bodin", 'The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'

4to (9 1/4 x 6 3/8 in.; 235 x 162mm). [4], 110 [2], pages ruled in brown, woodcut initials, contemporary marginalia in brown ink, intermittent and minor dampstaining to lower margin. Full brown calf, covers with interlaced scrolls and finial arabesques, center panel bearing the arms of Bishop Bouvery of Angers within a scroll frame with pained borders, the intervening spaces thickly studded, compartment with gilt twining leaf pattern, borders gilt-ruled and painted in black red and silver, all edges gilt and gauffered; minor rubbing to upper joint. Full brown straight grain morocco slipcase, spine gilt-lettered.
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First edition of a rare translation, handsomely bound and bearing the arms of Bishop Bouvery of Angers, patron of Jean BodinGabriel Bouvery served as Bishop of Angers during the French Wars of Religion. In 1567 he formed the Angevin Catholic League, and his diocese was spared the worst of the violence. Jean Bodin, translator of this rare work, was a political and natural philosopher, historian, economist, demonologist and, more generally, one of the most compelling intellectual figures of the sixteenth century. In 1548, Bodin was summoned before France’s newly formed tribunal for the suppression of heresy, the Chambre Ardente, and was shortly thereafter imprisoned on suspicion of consorting with "lutherans." It was Gabriel Bouvery who would prove instrumental in securing his release. Upon his liberation, Jean Bodin returned to Angers—the town of his birth—where he remained under Bishop Bouvery’s protection. In the early 1550s, Bodin took up study at the University of Toulouse, and afterwards became the scientific editor for the Latin translation from the Greek of Oppian's third-century treatise on hunting, present here. In this translation, Bodin includes a warm dedication to his protector, Gabriel Bouvery.