[Reformation] Jean Calvin. Institution de la Religion chrestienne,

nouvellement mise en quatre livres, & distinguée par chapitres, en ordre & methode bien propre (...). Par Iean Calvin. Geneva, Th. Courteau, 1564, (184),904,(56) p. (text in 2 columns), woodcut printer's device, engr. portrait of the author, contemp. limp vellum.

Occas. soiled/stained, dog-eared at the beginning; upper hinge split. Vellum dam./rep./worn and lacking ties. With old library entry in pen on title p.: "Aux Capucins de Rennes". Erichson p. 28; Palgrave I, 204ff; PMM 65: "Calvin's Institution of the Christian Religion was the first systematic statement of a Reformed Church. It is the most important doctrinal work of the Reformation as a whole and provided a comprehensive theological system rivalling those of the Middle Ages, particularly Thomas Aquinas's. It discusses ancient and medieval philosophy, the Church Fathers, the contemporary Roman Church and the Reformers". Early edition of the French translation, with extensive indices by Augustin Marlorat, the last edition that appeared during the lifetime of the author (the first Latin edition appeared in 1536, the first French in 1545).