Nun, Mystic, Reformer
RIBERA, Francisco de.
La vie de la mère Terese de Iesus, fondatrice des Carmes dechaussez composée par le R. P. François de Ribera, docteur de la Compagnie de Iesus. Et divisée en cinq livres. Traduitte d’Espagnol en François, par I.D.B.P. et le P.G.D.C.C. Paris, Jean Jost, 1645.
8vo, ff. [6], 435 (i.e. 434), 20 (index); copper-engraved title-page (signed ‘M.F.’), woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces; occasional spots, a few quires slightly browned, light marginal damp-staining to a few leaves; very good in nineteenth-century calf, gilt fillet borders to covers, flat spine decorated in gilt with lettering-piece, marbled endpapers; extremities slightly rubbed, some adhesions to pastedowns; front endpaper with inscription ‘Dubourdieu prêtre’ and book label ‘N.D. de la Trappe de l’Immaculée Conception, à Avesnières'.
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La vie de la mère Terese de Iesus, fondatrice des Carmes dechaussez composée par le R. P. François de Ribera, docteur de la Compagnie de Iesus. Et divisée en cinq livres. Traduitte d’Espagnol en François, par I.D.B.P. et le P.G.D.C.C.
Uncommon edition of the life of the Carmelite nun and mystic St Teresa of Ávila by the Spanish Jesuit Francisco de Ribera (1537–1591), in the French translation of Jean de Brétigny and Guillaume de Chèvre, with a striking engraved title-page.
Ribera’s biography first appeared in Spanish in 1590, this French translation following in 1601. The title-page depicts St Teresa (1515–1582) in the company of St John of the Cross, joint founder of the Discalced Carmelites, and St Catherine of Siena.
‘St Teresa’s importance is twofold. Her work in reforming the Carmelite Order has survived in the great number of Discalced houses which venerate her as their foundress. She was a woman of strong character, shrewdness, and great practical ability. As a spiritual writer her influence was epoch-making, because she was the first to point to the existence of states of prayer intermediate between discursive meditation and ecstasy … and to give a scientific description of the entire life of prayer from meditation to the so-called mystic marriage’ (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church).
Only one copy of this edition traced in the UK (Bodleian); OCLC records five copies in the US. Cf. Palau 266857; Sommervogel VI, 1762.