Nice and clean copy (internally) in a worn but solid contemporary binding of the best edition of the works by St. Hilary of Poitiers (Cf. Graesse and Ceillier). St. Hilary is the most famous of the earlier opponents of Arianism in the West. He wrote commentaries and polemical works, including the great treatise "De Trinitate" and a lost historical work. His style is affectedly involved and obscure, but he is nevertheless a theologian of considerable merit. The very name of his treatise on the Trinity shows that he approached the dogma from the Western point of view of a Trinity in Unity, but he has largely employed the works of Origen, Athanasius, and other Easterns. Until his day, the only great Latin Father was St. Cyprian, and Hilary had no rival in his own generation. The first outstanding edition of the works by St. Hilary was done by the Benedictine scolars of St. Maur (notably Pierre Coutant) and was published in 1693 in 1 volume. It is considered one of the fines examples of Maurist scolarship. Our edition of 1730 contains more texts and variants by St. Hilary (a.o. Psalm commentaries) and was again revised according to known manuscripts with a new preface by the Italian savant Francesco Scipione Maffei (1675-1755). It laid the foundation for later editions (like the one in Migne's Patrologie Latine). Small library stamp on fly-leaf, later endpapers and restauration of inner hinges. Without the 2 pages of manuscript facsimile in volume 1 cf. OCLC 6951630; Graesse III, pp. 277/278; Ceillier, Histoire générale des auteurs ecclésastiques, IV, p. 88. Mansell 245:441; BM 103:798.