‎SLEIDANUS, J.‎
‎Commentariorum de Statu religionis & Reipublica, Carolo Quinto Caesare, Libri XXVI.‎

‎Argentorati (Strassbourg), Theodosius Rihelius, (around 1560 ?). With woodcut title-vignette. (16), 872, (24) pp. 8vo. Contemporary overlapping vellum. Adams S.1294; not in BMSTC (French); Haag, La France Protestante, viii, pp. 225-227. Adams gives a number of slightly differing editions (numbers 1292-1295) and dates them 1565. Copies we located in the Dutch on-line catalogue of the Dutch University Libraires are dated 1558. The 1555 edition contained 25 books, this edition has 26 books, and the last sections deals with the year 1556. Sleidanus was born as Jean Philippson, but adopted at a fairly young age the name of his native village, Schleiden (in Latin, Sleida).Sleidanus was one of the three historians of the German Reformation who dominated both Catholic and Protestant citations, the other two being Hospinien and Chytraeus. Sleidanus did not provide much detail on the lives of the Reformers, but supplied an extract of public acts and original documents deposited in the Strasbourg archives. His fidelity to these documents made him a trusted authority for both sides in the historical debates (E. Israels Perry, From Theology to History: French religious controversy and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, pp. 27-28.) 'Johannes Sleidanus (1506-1556), annalist of the German Reformation. Adopting Protestant views of a Calvinist type, in 1536 he entered the service of the Bellay brothers who were in correspondence with the Schmalkaldic League, and in 1540-1 he was employed in diplomatic missions for the French crown. In 1544 he was appointed as historiographer of the Reformation by Philip of Hesse. He represented a group of South German cities at the Council of Trent and took part in the negociations of the German Protestants with Henry II of France in 1552. His work De Statu Religionis.... and its large collection of documents make it the chief contemporary source for the period, though the author's impartiality met with little favour from his contemporaries, Protestant or Catholic. It remains the most valuable contemporary history of the times of the Reformation, and contains the largest collection of important documents' (Encyclopædia Brittanica). - Stamp of 'Studiehuis Minderbroeders Nijmegen' on title and page 11. Occasional underlinings, stamped library shelf mark on title and shelf mark pasted on upper cover. ‎

Reference : 22808

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