Treatise on monastic studies : 1691

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Bibliographic Information

Treatise on monastic studies : 1691

Dom Jean Mabillon ; translated with an introduction by John Paul McDonald

University Press of America, c2004

  • : pbk

Other Title

Traité des études monastiques

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [291]-318) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This is the first English translation of Dom Jean Mabillon's treatise that defends the propriety of study and research as an occupation for monks, and lays out a course of studies for young Benedictines training to be scholars. In the 1680s the strict Trappist reformer, Armand-Jean de Rance, published books condemning scholarship as a suitable occupation for monks. Mabillon belonged to the Maurists, a group of French Benedictines who were already launched on a 150-year odyssey of collecting, editing, and publishing critical editions of the church Fathers, the classics of early French literature and history, the annals of the Benedictine order from its beginnings, and critically vetted lives of Benedictine saints. Mabillon refuted Rance's claims, but transformed the debate by writing a masterful survey of authors and works with which monastic scholars should be familiar: pagan classics, the writings of early Christianity, and important publications of the 16th and 17th centuries on topics ranging from biblical scholarship to belles lettres to civil and canon law to books about books. Mabillon includes a "list of difficulties met with in reading the councils, the Fathers, and church history" that presents problems in a non-dogmatic, open-ended way. This edition includes a translator's introduction, suggestions for further reading on the monastic studies controversy, all Mabillon's marginal notes, a bibliography of all published works mentioned in the text, and an index.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Acknowledgements Chapter 2 Translator's Introduction Chapter 3 Bibliographical and Editorial Note Chapter 4 Further Reading Chapter 5 Mabillon's Letter of Dedication Chapter 6 Mabillon's Table of Contents Chapter 7 Mabillon's Preface Chapter 8 Part One Chapter 9 Part Two Chapter 10 Pat Three Chapter 11 Mabillon's List of Principal Difficulties Chapter 12 Notes Chapter 13 Bibliography Chapter 14 Index

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