Mosis Libri V, cum Iohannis Caluini Commentariis. Genesis seorsum: reliqui quator in formam harmoniae digesti.
Geneva, Switzerland: Henricus Stephanus [Henri Estienne], 1563.
First edition of Calvin's Harmony of the Pentateuch, the final biblical commentary published during his lifetime. 2º [12], 339, [1], 625, [27] pp. 35.5 x 23 x 6 cm. Folio in sixes. Collation complete: *1-*6 (Dedication); a1-ee8 (Genesis); a1-fff6, [2] (Harmony); ggg1- (unsigned index 12 leaves). Recent half brown mottled calf over marbled boards, six raised bands, panels ruled in black previous black morocco label preserved reading "Calvinus in Pentateuchum," fresh endsheets in addition to original flyleafs. Red rubricated margins, red spotted edges, red-ruled text, Woodcut dropcaps beginning Genesis and Harmony, map of the land of the patriarchs. In Latin. Near Fine, with limited smudging and staining, prelims vertically creased, small circular chip to title page, ink splotch to tail edge, scant pen notations in tidy and minuscule hand, two tiny worm holes from rear terminating at p. 432 and 313 of the Harmony. Otherwise a very clean and fresh copy. French theologian John Calvin intended to compile a "Harmony of the Law," combing the
five Books of Moses for paranetic sayings and sorting them according to a Decalogue rubric.
This was novel approach among Christian scholars, following the precedent of many medieval rabbis whom Calvin cites regularly. Here, we see, in Calvin's final discourse on the
Law, the full flowering of his thought on the matter which had come to occupy so much of his concern in the final edition of the Institutes four years prior. Occupying 286 pages in the heart of the book, it
stands as Calvin's most mature and sustained treatment of the law, a masterful legal treatise in addition to its theological and exegetical dimensions. He brought the full powers of his renaissance humanist training to bear on one of the few segments of Scripture on which he had not published: the final four books of Moses. Following a revised edition of his translation and commentary on Genesis, he sought to do for the deuteronomic books what he had previously done in his Harmony of the Gospels. Strikingly, he was the first commentator-- Jewish or Christian-- to attempt a harmony of the Torah. With his cherished literary ideals of clarity and brevity, Calvin explicitly sought to avoid duplication of comment where the scriptural writer is redundant. In the process, he reorganizes the narrative structure, implementing the textual critical skills he learned in Paris as a law student. In spite of Calvin's own piety and insistence that he is not seeking to improve upon the given form of Scripture, many have found here the spores which would germinate in the higher critical movement of the coming centuries. In addition to the narrative restructuring, Calvin organizes all legal passages of the Torah under the rubric of the 10 commandments, a first among Christian scholars, following the precedent of many medieval rabbis whom he cites regularly. Here we see, in Calvin's final discourse on the Law, the full flowering of his thought on the matter which had come to occupy so much of his concern in the final edition of the Institutes four years prior.
Sources: Renouard, Estienne 121.1; Adams C 275, 281; Peter & Gilmont, Bibliotheca Calviniana
(63/16); Wulfert de Greef, The Writings of John Calvin, 88-90. Parker, T. H. L. Calvin's Old
Testament Commentaries; Barbara Pitkin. Calvin's Mosaic Harmony: Biblical Exegesis and
Early Modern Legal History.
Price: $7,500