L'office de la Semaine Sainte, a l'usage de la maison du roy. Imprimé par exprès Commandement de Sa Majesté. Conformément aux Breviaires & Messels Romain & Parisien. Avec les Cérémonies de l'Eglise. Nouvelle edition
IN A CONTEMPORARY FANFARE BINDING
FOR CARDINAL de FLEURY, CHIEF MINISTER TO LOUIS XV
Paris: Jacques Collombat, 1727.
Octavo (8 ½” x 5 ½”, 218mm x 141mm): binder’s blank, ã8 A-Pp8 Qq4, binder’s blank [$4 signed; –ã1]. 308 leaves, pp. [16] (title, text-frame, 4pp. preface, 4pp. prayer to God, 3pp. prayer to Jesus Christ, 2pp. prayer to the Virgin, privilege), 1 2-616. With 8 engraved plates: frontispiece with the Adoration of the tetragrammaton surrounded by angels; title with Moses and David surrounding the Sleeping Lamb on the book of Seven Seals; and five chapter titles (integral with the text) with emblematic or illustrative scenes from the life of Christ; as well as many woodcut headers and initials.
Bound in contemporary burgundy morocco gilt à la fanfare. At the center of the boards, arms of Cardinal de Fleury, set within fanfare compartments of starbursts and scrollwork. On the spine, five raised bands. Title (“SEMAINE/ SAINTE”) gilt to the second panel. Gilt roll to the edges of the boards. Gilt inside dentelle. Marbled end papers. All edges of the text block gilt over marbling. Cobalt silk marking ribbon.
Scuffing to the front board, with wormholes to the tail. Some wear at the edges of the boards. Foxing throughout, with minor staining and tearing to some pages, especially to front binder’s blanks. XIXc Saint’s cards laid in at Kk3-4 (pp. 518-519) Ll6-7 (pp. 540-542).
The Offices of Holy Week (i.e., the week before Easter) were elaborate and solemn liturgical ceremonies observed in the Roman Catholic Church, culminating in the Easter Triduum (Maundy Thursday through Easter Sunday). This period calls for the faithful to make profound expressions of penance and reflection on the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Services featured the chanting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, the Tenebrae service with its dramatic extinguishing of candles, and the adoration of the Cross on Good Friday.
This “nouvelle edition” was the first printing of the offices during the reign of Louis XV (1710–1774). Cardinal André-Hercule de Fleury (1653–1743), served as the chief minister to the king from 1726 until his death. He began his career in the Church and held various ecclesiastical positions, eventually becoming the bishop of Fréjus in 1698. Fleury’s rise to political prominence began when he was appointed tutor to the young Louis XV in 1715, following the death of Louis XIV. His close relationship with the king made him an éminence grise during the most celebrated and productive period of Louis’s reign.
Catalogued by Sophie Fyfe.
Item #SJF0028
Price: $5,800