Coustumier et directoire pour les soeurs religieuses de la visitation de Saincte Marie

by Jeanne-Françoise de Chantal

Lyon: Vincent de Coeursilly, 1628 [or not long after]

[6], 178, [2]; 72; 8, 13-14, [8] p. | 4to | pi1 ã^2 A-Y^4 Z^2 Aa-Ii^4 A-B^2 D1 *^4 | 235 x 175 mm

Apparently the UNIDENTIFIED TRUE SECOND EDITION of the rule for the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, a Catholic order for women founded in 1610 by Jeanne-François de Chantal and Francis de Sales. Authorship is sometimes shared with the latter, though the dedicatory epistle is clearly signed by the former. Our preliminary gathering (title included) and the Chant section are same sheets used in the 1628 first edition. But the bulk of our text has been expanded far beyond the scope of that 88-page edition—indeed, our content is much closer to the 1637 edition, though clearly in a different setting (with different errata to go with it). We find NO COPIES OF THIS LARGER 1628 EDITION IN LIBRARIES. One scholar did cite this particular edition in 2001, so at least one other copy must be out there. All of this begs the question of whether our title page reflects this edition's true date of publication. We suspect it would have been given a fresh title page if it appeared much later, as was the 1637 edition. If this entire edition was issued with prelims and music from the first edition, we also suspect it would have been a relatively small press run, limited by those overruns produced during the first edition. ¶ These official rules provide comprehensive guidelines for sisters’ conduct, from prayer and administration to furniture and clothing, food and healthcare, and much more. For example, we have chapters on aspiring novitiates (p. 8-9) and young women entering the convent (p. 20-21: they enter around 12 years old and receive the habit at 15); on silence (p. 69-70); on sleeping (p. 72: when undressing, sisters should not stare at their nude bodies); one on how to write (p. 100: letters should be succinct, with prescribed devotional phrases at beginning and end); on meals (p. 111: on major feasts, sisters will be given "something extraordinary"); and on the different record books to be maintained, complete with sample entries (p. 126-128). No doubt these published regulations helped maintain uniformity across a fast growing network of convents. At end is a 14-page Chant de l’office des religieuses de la Visitation de Saincte Marie, followed by four and a half pages of errata. ¶ The Visitandine order was founded to blend charitable work with the quiet contemplation typical of a traditional cloistered religious life. In doing so, it offered women a rare middle path between their only two socially acceptable options at the time: marriage or cloister. Until formally sanctioned an order in 1618, at which point cloister became mandated, the congregation was that singular institution to which women could retreat when the spiritual need arose, and then to return to the more routine affairs of married life and household management when required. De Chantal’s own late husband had a temper, and was known to throw a few dishes, so perhaps her own experience informed this exceptional position. Despite its urban elite composition, the order was uncommonly inclusive in one very meaningful way: in rejecting typical austere demands (e.g., fasting, recitation of the full Office), it became a haven for the elderly, widowed, ailing, and delicate. De Chantal left a legacy of spiritual success upon her death, having supervised the establishment of a staggering eighty-seven Visitation houses—a remarkable accomplishment for such a young order. ¶ Plainly rare. We find just a single copy of a 1628 edition, the 88-page first edition at the Lyon Public Library, and this the only 1628 edition at auction.

PROVENANCE: With the ownership inscription on title of the Visitandine monastery in Romans-sur-Isere. Our knowledge of libraries belonging to women's cloistered communities pales in comparison to what we know of those found belonging to men's. Records are scarce, and “only conjecture and speculation suggest the composition of most convent libraries.” We can be certain, however, that “convent libraries contained collections rich in social history and women’s history because they contained some of the only literature by, for, and about women” (Sigmon). This book, with CLEAR VISITANDINE PROVENANCE, is a case in point. Such libraries were arguably more critical to their nuns than monastic libraries were to their monks, as women religious generally lacked monks’ freedom to travel to other libraries. ¶ A diligent early reader has THOROUGHLY CORRECTED THE TEXT ACCORDING TO THE ERRATA at end, including some half dozen handwritten slips tipped to the page.

CONDITION: In brown painted paper wrappers of the late 19th or early 20th century, the spine and inside of the wrapper lined with printed waste of that vintage. Last leaf is blank. Despite appearances, the Chant at end appears to be complete. Gathering C^2 makes no appearance in the digitized 1628 first edition at the Lyon Public Library (where the Chant is bound at front), and the text is continuous (though frequently repeated, it's true). ¶ First gathering's sewing loose, but holding; title leaf darkened and the upper left corner patched, affecting several letters; dampstained throughout, mostly marginal; F3 torn and repaired, affecting a few square inches of the leaf; dark stain the upper left corner throughout, strictly marginal; three small holes pierced through the front, penetrating nearly half the text block. Extremities of the wrapper a bit ragged, with a closed tear at the top of the front cover less than an inch long.

REFERENCES: Bernard Dompnier, "'La cordiale communication de nos petites nouvelles': les lettres circulaires, pratique d'union des monastères," Visitation et visitandines aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (2001), p. 278 (citing p. 118 of this particular 1628 edition); Merry Wiesner-Hanks, Women and the Reformations (2024), p. 93 ("They explicitly used the Virgin Mary as their model, naming their group the Visitation as a reference to Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth during Elizabeth's pregnancy with John the Baptist, which brought her comfort and revealed that both women would give birth to extraordinary sons"); Silvia Evangelisti, Nuns: A History of Convent Life 1450-1700 (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 69, 219-224; Richard L. DeMolen, Religious Orders of the Catholic Reformation (Fordham University Press, 1994), p. 217-240; Rebecca A. Sigmon, “Reading Like a Nun: The Composition of Convent Libraries in Renaissance Europe,” Journal of Religious & Theological Information 10 (2011), p. 81-82 (cited above); Jo Ann Kay McNamara, Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns through Two Millennia (Harvard University Press, 1996), p. 466

Item #774