![LEVSHIN, Aleksandr Georgievich (1732-1798). Istoricheskoe Opisanie Pervoprestol'nago v Rossii Khrama, Moskovskago bol'shago Uspenskago Sobora i o Vozobnovlenii Pervykh Trekh Moskovskikh Soborov Uspenskago, Blagoveshchenskago i Archangel'skago. [Historical Study of the Church of the Old Capital of Russia, the large Moscow Cathedral of the Assumption and of the restoration of the first three Moscow Cathedrals: the Cathedral of the Assumption, the Cathedral of the Annunciation, and the Cathedral of the Archangel]. Moscow: Meier, 1783.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2007/CKS/2007_CKS_07472_0022_000(025356).jpg?w=1)
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LEVSHIN, Aleksandr Georgievich (1732-1798). Istoricheskoe Opisanie Pervoprestol'nago v Rossii Khrama, Moskovskago bol'shago Uspenskago Sobora i o Vozobnovlenii Pervykh Trekh Moskovskikh Soborov Uspenskago, Blagoveshchenskago i Archangel'skago. [Historical Study of the Church of the Old Capital of Russia, the large Moscow Cathedral of the Assumption and of the restoration of the first three Moscow Cathedrals: the Cathedral of the Assumption, the Cathedral of the Annunciation, and the Cathedral of the Archangel]. Moscow: Meier, 1783.
2 works in 1 vol., 8° (196 x 120mm). Errata. Engraved frontispiece, engraved head- and tail-pieces. (One engraving lacking, frontispiece trimmed and torn at gutter, occasional small holes, light browning, occasional spotting.) Twentieth-century leather (extremities very slightly rubbed). Provenance: ?Fedor Chernev (inscription) -- contemporary notes in ink and pencil -- twentieth-century stamp.
FIRST EDITION. Aleksandr Levshin was brother of Petr Levshin, Bishop Platon of Moscow (see lot 2), through whom he was personally acquainted with Catherine II. During his lifetime he was principally known for his sermons, including one he wrote on the occasion of Catherine II's vaccination against smallpox in 1768, and another in thanksgiving for the end of the plague in Moscow in 1772. In 1787, 206 copies of this work were confiscated from Moscow booksellers, after Catherine had passed a decree stating that all books of a religious nature not published by Church presses should be seized; this also affected books with suspected links to Freemasonry written and published by Platon and his acquaintances, especially Nikolai Novikov (see lots 2, 15, 47 and index for other lots of Freemasonry). SK 3520; Sopikov 7582.
2 works in 1 vol., 8° (196 x 120mm). Errata. Engraved frontispiece, engraved head- and tail-pieces. (One engraving lacking, frontispiece trimmed and torn at gutter, occasional small holes, light browning, occasional spotting.) Twentieth-century leather (extremities very slightly rubbed). Provenance: ?Fedor Chernev (inscription) -- contemporary notes in ink and pencil -- twentieth-century stamp.
FIRST EDITION. Aleksandr Levshin was brother of Petr Levshin, Bishop Platon of Moscow (see lot 2), through whom he was personally acquainted with Catherine II. During his lifetime he was principally known for his sermons, including one he wrote on the occasion of Catherine II's vaccination against smallpox in 1768, and another in thanksgiving for the end of the plague in Moscow in 1772. In 1787, 206 copies of this work were confiscated from Moscow booksellers, after Catherine had passed a decree stating that all books of a religious nature not published by Church presses should be seized; this also affected books with suspected links to Freemasonry written and published by Platon and his acquaintances, especially Nikolai Novikov (see lots 2, 15, 47 and index for other lots of Freemasonry). SK 3520; Sopikov 7582.
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