RANCÉ Armand-Jean de Méditations sur la règle de S. Benoist, tirées du commentaire de monsieur l’abbé de la Trappe.

Cioranescu, 58107.

First edition. Fine copy bound for Chancellor Boucherat.

Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé (1626-1700), one of the precursors of the Cistercian order of the Strict Observance, was one of the most outstanding figures of the spirituality of the Great Century. His life was immortalised in Chateaubriand’s biography, La vie de Rancé. From his early age he was destined for an ecclesiastical career. He became a canon at the age of eleven and was ordained a priest in 1651 after brilliant studies in Paris with Bossuet, one of his fellow students. His visit to La Trappe in 1660 was a milestone in his career.

Having fallen into ruin, Rancé set about restoring the abbey, which subsequently became an important place for spreading a new approach to Christian meditation. In the Meditations, “the longest section contains Rancé’s meditations on the Preface to the Rule of Benedict. This section, understandably, can be read in some respects as an apology for the austere form of religious life he proposes” (see Ellen Weaver-Laporte, in: Commentaires sur la règle de St. Benoît, p. 32).

A very fine copy bearing the arms of Chancellor Louis Boucherat (1616-1699), Count of Compans, and a member of the Paris Parliament.