LA VACQUERIE, Jean de (d. 1497). De multiplici hæreticorum tentatione. Paris: Nicolas Chesneau and Claude Frémy, 1560.

Rare treatise on heresy with the sermon read at the baptism of two children from America in France. La Vacquerie served as the first president of the Parliament of Paris from 1481 to 1497. In this polemic, he identifies three strategies used by heretics to lead the faithful astray and compares them to the temptations faced by Christ. At the end is a sermon which he read in 1559 “apud Faræmonasterium in ablutione baptismali duorum puerorum terræ Americæ” [at the Faremoutiers monastery during the baptism of two children from the land of America]—likely two indigenous Brazilians brought to France. Adams V 2. BM STC French 432.

Small octavo (160 × 105mm). Woodcut printer’s device on title-page woodcut initials and headpieces (sewing loose at tail of quire C, light dampstains). Contemporary limp vellum, frame and central fleuron tooled in gold, edges gilt (warped, tail of textblock exposed). Provenance: 18th/19th-century name on flyleaf.