AQUINAS’S VIRTUES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF DOUAI
CHEVALIER, André-Joseph, professor; A.J. BERENTS, compiler.
‘Tractatus De Fide, Spe et Charitate Dictatus ab Eximio Domino Domino Chevalier, Doctore regente in alma universitate Duacena. Conscriptus a me A.J. Berents Mosa Trajectino.
[Douai, 9 March – 4 August] 1787.
Manuscript on blue paper, two vols, 8vo (182 x 120 mm), pp. I: [4], 615, [11]; II: [2], 536, [10] (a few misnumbered pages); neatly written in Latin in a small cursive hand in brown ink, 24 lines per page; some light marginal dampstains, but very good; in contemporary mottled sheep, spines gilt in compartments with gilt red morocco lettering-pieces and green morocco numbering pieces (‘Tom XII’ and ‘Tom XIII’), edges stained red; extremities lightly rubbed, endcap of vol. I chipped; bookplate and ink stamp of the Cistercian Val-Dieu Abbey in Aubel, Herve.
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‘Tractatus De Fide, Spe et Charitate Dictatus ab Eximio Domino Domino Chevalier, Doctore regente in alma universitate Duacena. Conscriptus a me A.J. Berents Mosa Trajectino.
A manuscript treatise concerning the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity as expounded in Thomas Aquinas’s Summa theologiae, compiled by a student at the University of Douai from lectures by André-Joseph Chevalier.
The manuscript comprises a theology course by André-Joseph Chevalier (1745–1819) of Armentières, professor of theology at Douai since 1774, concerning Thomas Aquinas’s influential theory of the theological virtues. The great majority of the two volumes is dedicated to faith (‘Tractatus Imus: De fide’, vol. I, p. 7–vol. II p. 492), reflecting on various themes such as the essence and object of faith (‘De essentia et objecto fidei’, vol. I, pp. 8-103), and its necessity (‘De necessitate fidei’, vol. I, pp. 296-368). Only forty-three pages are dedicated to the other two virtues, hope (‘Pars 2da: De spe’, vol. II, pp. 493-507) and charity (‘Pars III: De charitate’, pp. 507-536). Each volume contains a detailed table of contents (vol. I, p. 612 ad finem, and vol. II, p. [537] ad finem). Manuscripts of other lectures by Chevalier, compiled earlier in the decade by a student from Bruges, are now held at the Institut Catholique de Lille (Tractatus theologicus de actibus humanis … anno reparata salutis, 1780-1, and Tractatus theologicus, 1781).
The present manuscript was compiled by A.J. Berents, a student from Maastricht at the University of Douai. Established in the Spanish Netherlands in 1559 by Philip II, following French annexation in 1667 Douai became the second largest university of France, after the Sorbonne. The faculty of theology was an important centre for Catholic scholarship in Europe, with large and well-established communities of students from Britain and present-day Belgium and the Netherlands.
See Plouvain, Ephémérides historiques de la ville de Douai, p. 152.
