THIRTEEN NUNS IN ONE
[BOIS, Paul.]
La vie des premieres religieuses Capucines du monastere de Marseille.
Marseille, de l’imprimerie de Dominique Sibié, 1754.
8vo, pp. xix, [1], 386, [2], 25, [1 (blank)]; woodcut frontispiece, woodcut flaming heart to title, woodcut head- and tailpieces; some foxing, toning, and light dampstaining, small adhesion to last page touching a few letters; in contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments with red morocco lettering-piece, marbled endpapers; worn, front board detached and spine cracked, losses to spine ends, wear to edges and corners; armorial bookplate of ‘Mr l’avocat Cresp’ (Joseph-Jean-Baptiste Cresp (1750–1828), Marseille lawyer) to front pastedown, nineteenth-century blue ink stamp of the Jesuits of Marseille to title and p. 29.
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La vie des premieres religieuses Capucines du monastere de Marseille.
Scarce first edition of a compendium of the lives of thirteen Capuchin nuns associated with Marseille, attributed to Paul Bois (1685–1763), curate of nearby Noyers-sur-Jabron, with a woodcut frontispiece depicting a nun before an altar.
The collection begins with the life of Marthe d’Oraison (1590–1627), who founded the convent for Capuchin Poor Clares at Marseille in 1623. The biographies which follow cover: Agnés de Tours, the convent’s first abbess; Bonne de Paris; Felicienne d’Amiens; Agnès d’Aguillenqui (1602–1672), who served three times as abbess; Cherubine d’Aix; Catherine d’Arles; Anne de la Croix; Françoise d’Avignon; Seraphine de Tourettes; Marie de Saint François; Elisabeth du Saint Enfant Jesus; and Marie de tous les Saints.
The work is dedicated to Marie Leszczyńska (1703–1768), queen consort of Louis XV. Dominique Sibié (1698–1758) served as printer to the king, and to the city and college of Marseille.
No copies traced in the UK, and only two in the US (Georgetown University, University of Notre Dame).
