Best edition of the first systematic attempt ever made by the "Father of the History of Dogma" to treat the development of Christian doctrine from the historical point of view. Denis Petau, Jesuit scholar, better known as Dionysius Petavius was born at Orleans. Educated at Paris University, he came under the influence of Isaac Scaliger, -who directed his attention towards the obscurer fathers of the Church. In 1603 he was appointed to a lectureship at the university of Bourges, but resigned his place two years later, in order to enter the Society of Jesus. For many years he was professor of divinity at the College de Clermont, the chief Jesuit establishment in Paris; At sixty years of age he stopped teaching, but retained his office of librarian and consecrated the rest of his life to his great work, the "Dogmata theologica". He was one of the most brilliant scholars in a learned age. Numerous eulogies were pronounced on him by his contemporaries, such as Huet, Valois, Grotius, Isaac Voss, F. Clericus, Noris, etc. Carrying on and improving the chronological labors of Scaliger, Petau published in 1627 an Opus de doctrina temporum, which has been often reprinted. But Petaus eminence chiefly rests on his vast De theologicis dogmatibus. In 1643 the first three volumes were published (dated 1644); the fourth and fifth volumes were published in 1650. The work was incomplete at the death of the author, and, despite several attempts, was never continued. Various editions have been published, including that by the Calvinist Jean Le Clerc in Antwerp (Amsterdam) 1700; In 1757 F. A. Zaccaria S.J. republished the work in Venice with notes, dissertations, etc.; Zaccaria (1714-1795) was a.o. professor of church history at the Sapienza and director of the Accademia de'Nobili Ecclesiastici. He was a member of at least nineteen Italian academies. In 1857 Passaglia and Schrader undertook a similar work, but they produced only the first volume. The last edition was brought out in eight volumes by J. B. Fournials (Paris, 1866-8). Only minor defects and soiling to the bindings as expected; labels partly gone. Graesse V, p. 218; Hurter IV, 746v.; See: Sommervogel, Bibl. des écriv. S. J., VI (1895); 1 copy in NCC, 14 in OCLC;