Quakers, Mohammedans, Hindustan pagans & Jesuits in Peru.

[Alberto Radicati] / [Edward Elwall]. Sermon, Préché dans la grande Assemblée des Quakers, de Londres Par le Fameux frere E: Elwall, dit l’Inspiré. Traduit de l’Anglois. Londres [Rotterdam?]: Au depens de la Compagnie, 1737. 8vo [15.5 x 9.7 cm], [1] f. title, 47 pp., [1] p. blank verso, [1] f. cancel title (La religion muhammedane, comparée à la paienne de l’Indostan, par Ali-ebn-Omar, Moslem Epitre à Cinknu, Bramin de Visapour, Traduite de l’Arabe), 49-104 pp., with [1] folding engraving, titles in red and black.

Bound with:

[Sebastião José de Caravalho e Melo de Pombal]. La Republique Des Jesuites Au Paraguay Renversée, ou Relation authentique de la Guerre Que ces Religieux ont osé soutenir contre les Monarques d’Espagne & de Portugal en Amerique, pour y defender les Domaines don’t ils avoient usurpé la Souveraineté au Paraguay, sous pretexte de Religion. A la Haye: Chez Daniel Aillaud, Libraire dans la Grande Sale de la Cour, 1758. 8vo. [1] f. title, 2 pp. ‘Avertissement,’ 68 pp. Bound in early pink card, title in manuscript on spine, sprinkled edges. Fading, rubbing and edge wear to spine and boards, shelf-mark label on front pastedown. A few marginal mends in the first quire, very minor occasional toning.

Rare first edition (1 U.S. copy) of two Enlightenment French-language forgeries/satires written pseudonymously by the freethinker Count Alberto Radicati (1698-1737), the first concerning Quakerism and purporting to be by the radical Unitarian Edward Elwall (1676-1744) and the second concerning Islam & Hinduism and feigning to be a translation from the Arabic of a letter written by a certain Ali-Ebn-Omar to a certain Brahmin named Cinknus.

Bound with this double-title is the scarce (4 U.S. copies) 1758 anonymous French work denouncing the alleged creation of an independent empire by Jesuit priests in the overseas territories of Portugal and Spain (it is, in fact, a translation of Sebastião José de Caravalho e Melo de Pombal [1699-1782 1757 Relação abbreviada da republica que os religioses Jesuitas das Provincias de Portugal e Hespanha, written in the wake of the 1756 Guaraní War or War of the Seven Reductions).

The first title includes a folding etching signed with the name of John Clark (1683-1736), who operated at Gray’s Inn in London. It depicts Father Time and Justice lifting from the abyss a beautiful, radiant female nude who stands for Truth or Enlightenment. Above, a putto carries a banderole that reads “Vexat Dum Fulget” (“It harasses while it shines), a reference to the gadfly nature of radical thought. This action topples a papal statue of the Antichrist, and casts into shadow Ignorance (holding books labeled “Talmud” and “Koran”) and pagan Superstition.

The collection of these titles in one volume points to an early owner of some religio-philosophical sophistication (who nevertheless might have had difficulty telling fact from fiction).

OCLC and KVK locate 1 U.S. example of the first work (Bethel College) and five U.S. examples of La Republique Des Jesuites Au Paraguay Renversée (NYPL, Newberry, Boston College & Harvard Divinity)

*ESTC T102941; Sabin 63900.