Chantilly Brilliance

Inside the majestic Château de Chantilly is the Musée Condé, a unique piece of French history that has sat virtually unchanged since its opening in 1897. Within its halls lie vast collections of prints, drawings, sculptures and porcelain, as well as a library holding over 1,500 antique manuscripts.

Held in its collection is the Evangelica praeparatione, first written by the Christian apologetic author Eusebius sometime in the 3rd or 4th century. Known in English as the Preparations of the Gospel, Eusebius’ work contains many historical and philosophic writings that are preserved nowhere else, including Pyrrho’s translation of the Buddhist Three Marks of Existence, upon which Pyrrhonism was based.

What makes the Musée Condé’s edition so special is that it is the “editio princeps,” or first printing, of the Evangelica, which previously had existed only as a manuscript. The contents were printed in Paris in 1544 and the special red morocco binding featuring elaborate scrollwork, reproduced here, was crafted in Bologna in 1546.

For fans of: French history, religion and philosophy, Le Gascon, Equinoxe, Aurelia, Grolier