UNLOCATED DAILY MEDITATIONS

[Meditations]: Courts sujets de méditation. Pour tous les jours de l’année. [France, 18th century].

A neatly presented compilation of unlocated devotional meditations for each day of the year, starting with the first Sunday of Advent. Various meditative compilations with this organisational principle were printed in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as the similarly titled Sujets de Meditations pour tous les jours de l’année (Paris: chez Barthelemy Alix, 1736). While the present text is broadly consistent with the wider literary genre in terms of structure and tone, we have not located an exact parallel.

The meditations are typically about two pages long, start with ‘Adorer Jesus Christ…’, and have clear connections to the occasion at hand. For example, on Passion Sunday, the reader is encouraged to focus on ‘les misteres de la croix et des souffrances de Jesus Ch.’ (p. 257) while on Christmas day attention should be given to Christ’s humility ‘dans sa naissance et dans la créche’ (p. 43). Running titles ease navigation, and divisions are carefully highlighted through variation in script size and horizontal lines.

Details

Manuscript. One volume, 16 x 10 cms in binding, pp. [8] 1-274 [2] 275-473 [2] 474-625 [5]; all except 12 pages have writing. Frame ruling to most pages, written area typically approx. 10.5 x 6.5 cms, c.13 lines per page. No catchwords. Largely the work of one hand – though running titles, a tipped in addition (p. 587), and a duplicated page(?) adhered to the one below (p. 599) may be in a separate hand. Blue textile bookmark.

Bound in brown marbled calf over boards. Gold-tooled decoration to spine compartments. Goldtooled brown goatskin label to second spine compartment (MEDITATIO). Gold fillets to sides. One free endpaper at front and one at rear. Blue and white spotted edges. Marbled pastedowns and endpapers.

Condition (textblock): occasional light staining. Condition (binding): Some wear, rubbing, and delamination to leather.

Provenance:

1. Pencil note to verso of front free endpaper (29/h).
2. Formerly in the collection of Achille and Henri Moranvillé (1827-1895; 1863-1946).
3. Sold we believe as part of Paris, Tessier & Sarrou, 9 February 2016, lot 16.
4. Item purchased by us from an indirect source.