Vilnius, Lithuania: Drukarni Adakemickiey Soc: Jesu. 1738. Edition: Fourth Edition. , Binding: Full contemporary mottled calf boards. Blind framing on upper and lower. Spine with 5 raised bands in 6 compartments. Title in gilt in black label in 2. Decorative blind rules and motifs in compartments. , Notes: A very good collection of these “adventure” sermons and other works by Skarga, including the first 7 sermons from his famous 1597 Kazania Seymowe (Eight Sermons Before The Sejm), as well as his 1573 Pro Sacratissima Eucharistia and the accompanying Duodecim Artes Et Imposturæ Calvinistarum of 1582, the latter two of which form part of Skarga’s dialogue with the Calvinist author Andrzej Wolan (1530 – 1610), a noted political figure in the Commonwealth.

Piotr Skarga (1536 – 1612) was a prominent Polish Jesuit, preacher, hagiographer, polemicist, and leading figure of the Counter-Reformation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He is remembered as a vigorous early advocate of reforms to the Polish-Lithuanian polity and outspoken critic of the Commonwealth’s governing classes. He became the first rector of the Wilno Academy and served as a professor at the Krakow Academy (Jagellonian University), Poland’s oldest university and the world’s 13th oldest university in continuous operation. Due to his oratorical gifts, he was called “the Polish Bossuet” and was seen as the “patriotic seer” who predicted the partitions of Poland. He was known to be such an inspired and outspoken priest that he became the subject of Jan Matejko’s 1864 painting Sermon of Piotr Skarga, one of his most famous works.
Kazania Sejmowe (The Eight Sermons Before The Sejm), a political treatise composed in the guise of sermons, went almost unnoticed by contemporaries but is now recognized as Skarga’s most important work. Skarga is said to have likely composed the work in the aftermath of an unruly parliament session, or Sejm, of February-March 1597; after a number of quarrels, the Sejm failed to pass any legislation, even those related to national security. In the Sermons, Skarga discusses what he sees as the problems of the ailing Commonwealth: lack of patriotism, internal quarrels, tolerance of heretics, the king's relative powerlessness, perverse laws, and immorality. In the eighth and last sermon, Skarga predicts the fall of Poland, which he believed was destined to happen should the country not heed his warnings.
, Size: Small Folio.(306x201 mm)., Illustration: Text in Polish and Latin., Pages: P. 1 – 388. Blank (2). Title. Blank. Printer’s note (6). Dedication (2). Dedication (2). Regestr Kazan Przygodnych W. X. Piotra Skargi… (10). Kazania Pierwsze Seymowe: p. 5 – 388. Czesc Wtora O Jednosci Kosciola Bozego Pod Jednym Pasterzem… p. 1 – 293. Blank. Pro Sacratissima Eucharistia… p. 1 – 110. Duodecim Artes Et Imposturæ Calvinistarum… p. 111 – 218. Blank (3)., Category: Book Religious Christianity; Book Europe Ukraine; Book Europe Poland & Lithuania;. Occasional marks and edgewear to boards. Interior is clean. Pg. 215 misnumbered as 213. Item #B6720

Price: $4,750.00