(London: Printed by William Jackson, for Claude du Bosc, 1733-1739).

FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE GREATEST BOOKS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT. THE BOOK THAT CHANGED THE WAY EUROPEANS THOUGHT. A BOOK THAT STRENGTHENED ETHICAL AND RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE. A BOOK WITH A GREAT PROFUSION OF STUNNING COPPERPLATE ENGRAVINGS.
Jean Frédéric Bernard (1680 - 1744) was a French bookseller, author, translator, printer and publisher. He worked mainly in the Netherlands, but published mainly in his native language. The son of a Huguenot refugee family, which was deeply woven into the cultural network of the era, he became one of the Netherlands' best-selling publishers in Amsterdam thanks to his skill with reprints, who also used this income and an inheritance to finance important works of the European Enlightenment and natural sciences as an author. Recent research has gone so far as to attribute two of his editions, Recueil de voyages au nord (1715ff.) and Cérémonies et coûtumes religieuses (1723ff.), to have had a significant and lasting impact on the perception of the educated elites of the early 18th century. Both works strengthened ethical and religious tolerance towards other cultures and ethnic groups in the European Enlightenment.
Bernard developed a surprising religious theory concept in his introduction: "For him, religion is primarily a social phenomenon. All religions agree in their essential core, they are only different in their forms of expression. In the various customs and forms people's own religious ideas would find their expression; behind this, however, lies the need for ceremonies in general, which is fundamental to human beings. Also anthropologically constant is the desire to interpret certain times and aspects of human existence through religious rituals, but also the attempt to create access to the divine through prayer." Wyss-Giacosa
The seven-volume folio edition on the ceremonies and cultic expressions of all known religions was a bestseller of the Enlightenment era despite its high price and folio format. The 1,200 copies of the first edition were soon sold, translations were published into German, English and Dutch, and in 1741 there was even a competing edition in France itself. Contemporary reviewers reviewed the work extremely favorably and the work was widely found in the collections of prominent collectors of the time. The work gained particular importance due to the numerous illustrations by the engraver Bernard Picart, which were so popular with the public that the work was associated with Picart. In addition, the illustrations showed ethnic groups that, in the tenor of the time, were usually depicted as “bloodthirsty savages”, such as: The Indians of Florida, as caring individuals when mourning their loved ones. Thus, religious and cultural tolerance would have been increased in the European Enlightenment of the first half of the 18th century. Picart's depiction still has an iconographic influence on Jewish culture today.
Picard (1673 – 1733), was a French draughtsman, engraver, and book illustrator in Amsterdam. His interest in cultural and religious habits was a guiding force in the artistic works he produced. After settling in The Hague he gathered with other notable thinkers to consider the changing tones caused by the Enlightenment. Picart, Prosper Marchand and Charles Levier belonged to a "radical Huguenot coterie", that studied the works of John Locke, which promoted the separation of church and state.
From 1720 Picart collaborated on the Cérémonies with Bernard, with a commitment to religious toleration. Jonathan I. Israel calls Cérémonies "an immense effort to record the religious rituals and beliefs of the world in all their diversity as objectively and authentically as possible".
'They put religion in comparative perspective, offering images and analysis of Jews, Catholics, Hindus, Muslims, the peoples of the Orient and the Americas, Protestants, deists, freemasons, and assorted sects. Despite condemnation by the Catholic Church, the work was a resounding success. For the next century it was copied or adapted, but without the context of its original radicalism and its debt to clandestine literature, English deists, and the philosophy of Spinoza.'
This complete edition was published by Claude du Bosc from 1733 to 1739. This set, a copy of the complete du Bosc edition in its contemporary binding, is particularly collectible. As a reference book it was unprecedented; "no other work before then had ever attempted, in word and image, such a grand sweep of human religions". "It sowed the radical idea that religions could be compared on equal terms, and therefore that all religions were equally worthy of respect - and criticism. It turned belief in one unique, absolute, and God-given truth into 'religion', that is, into individual ceremonies and customs that reflected the truths relative to each people and culture". One of the most significant features of the work is its attention to the native American peoples. The 34 engravings in this section include illustrations of indigenous peoples from Canada, Virginia, Florida, Hispaniola, Mexico, Venezuela, the Caribbean and Peru engaged in a wide variety of activities.

See:

(L. Hunt/M. C. Jacob/W. Mijnhardt: The Book That Changed Europe : Picart & Bernard's Religious Ceremonies of the World. Harvard University Press, 2010 The Early Enlightenment, Religious Toleration, and the Origins of Comparative Religion: Bernard and Picart’s Religious Ceremonies and Customs of All the Peoples of the World)

Paola von Wyss-Giacosa: Religionsbilder der frühen Aufklärung. In: Sehepunkte, 7/2007, Nr. 9

Jenna Weissman Joselit: Enlightened Views. How a set of 18th-century etchings helped change the way Europe thought about religion, 2010

Israel, Jonathan I. (2001) Radical enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650–1750. Oxford University Press

"Center for European and Russian Studies". www.international.ucla.edu. Item #34674

7 volumes bound in six. First Edition in English. Sumptuously illustrated throughout with magnificent folio copperplate engravings by Picart. Title pages printed in red and black with engraved vignettes. Highly accomplished historiated and decorative head and tailpieces, large and decorative initials, some running 12 lines. Superb head and tail-pieces throughout, 224 plates, all with copperplate engravings, an extra plate in one volume not called for in the binding list with many being double-page and folding. One of the greatest books of the age, both in text and illustration. Elephant Folio, (17.5" x 11"), contemporary three-quarter calf over marbled paper covered boards, the spines with raised bands over cords, gilt ruled, contrasting red and green morocco lettering pieces gilt, the boards used in the binding are most probably the original printer's boards covered in blue paper as was normal. [4], viii, [10], 450, [12]; [x], 364, [14]; [xii], 495, [29]; ix, [9], 514, [14]; [vi], 470, [22]; [vi], 228, [6]; [iv], 164, [12] pp. A copy in its original binding, with some wear to the extremities, one cover loose at the upper hinge (easily repaired), some wear to the marbled paper showing the original printer's blue boards underneath, some general wear, the text-blocks and engravings all in pleasing condition, crisp and bright, unpressed and generally quite clean.