Norbertine Meditations, Printed at an Abbey
HERLET, Friedrich.
Solitudo Norbertina, sive exercitia spiritualia, omnibus clericis, saecularibus, et regularibus, curata vel simplicia beneficia obtinentibus perquam utilia; maxime tamen Canonicis Regularibus S. Ordinis Praemonstratensis accommodata … [Obermarchtal], typis Marchtallensibus, per Joan.
Georg. Schultermeyer, 1698.
12mo, pp. [48], 496, [18 (index)]; initials, headpieces; a few letters of title obscured through adhesion to endpaper, small marginal hole to X12, some light foxing, a few marks, some creasing to corners at end; good in contemporary calf, rebacked, title and date in gilt to spine, marbled endpapers; some wear to corners and edges; gilt red morocco label ‘Ex libris W.A. Foyle Beeleigh Abbey’ to front pastedown.
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Solitudo Norbertina, sive exercitia spiritualia, omnibus clericis, saecularibus, et regularibus, curata vel simplicia beneficia obtinentibus perquam utilia; maxime tamen Canonicis Regularibus S. Ordinis Praemonstratensis accommodata … [Obermarchtal], typis Marchtallensibus, per Joan.
Rare first edition of a collection of spiritual exercises by the Premonstratensian canon Friedrich Herlet (1644–1718), printed at Marchtal Abbey in Obermarchtal, southern Germany.
The bulk of the text comprises eight days’ worth of meditations, covering: clerical purpose, in particular that of the Premonstratensians; qualities required of members of the order, including purity of heart and charity; death, judgement, and hell; celebrating the Mass; singing God’s praises; preaching and exemplary conversation; and the avoidance of sin through mortification of the body, and the shunning of temptations and leisure. Three further meditations are appended, for prelates, monastic officials and temporal administrators, and parish priests.
Herlet was a doctor of theology and canon law and served as an advisor to the bishop of Würzburg. He joined the Premonstratensians at the age of forty, entering the abbey of Oberzell, where he rose to the rank of sub-prior; he later served as provost of the Premonstratensian nuns at Unterzell. The Solitudo Norbertina is his best-known work, a synthesis between Jesuit method and Norbertine spirituality.
Provenance: William Foyle (1883–1963), co-founder of Foyles bookshop, who purchased the former medieval monastery of Beeleigh Abbey, Essex, in 1943.
No copies traced in the UK. OCLC records a single copy in the US, at St Norbert College.
