La bibliotheque de l'Abbaye de Saint-Hubert en Ardenne au dix-septieme siecle (review)

La bibliothèque de l'Abbaye de Saint-Hubert en Ardenne au dix-septième siècle. Edited by Luc Knapen. Leuven: Bibliotheek Van de Faculteit der Godgeleerheid, 1999. Vol. 1: xv, 485 pp.; vol. 2: xlii, 635 pp. 70 E. ISBN 90-73683-29-7.

The Benedictine monastery of Saint Hubert, located in the Ardennes and reputedly founded during the eighth century, was a center of learning until its suppression in 1796. Several abbots saw to the acquisition of books for its library. After a disastrous fire in 1665, at which time an undetermined percentage of the library was lost, the library was reconstituted, and a catalog, which still survives, was put together. Using that catalog and other resources, the editor, Luc Knapen, has tried to reconstruct the list of books that at one time were part of the library and to examine the cultural and religious aspects of a seventeenth-century European monastery.

The first volume is a collection of essays about the monastery and its library. The first two essays concern the abbey itself. Jacques Charnaux considers the abbey and its role in the Low Countries during the seventeenth century. Besides its expected role as a Benedictine monastery, the abbey was also the center of the cult of Saint Hubert, patron of hunters. Under Abbot Nicolas de Fanson (1611-52), it was also a center for furrowing out instances of sorcery in the area. The second essay, by Jean-Marie Doucet, considers the biographies of Saint Hubert published by the abbey in the seventeenth century.

Two essays treat particular aspects of the collection. Daniel Misonne considers the oldest biblical manuscripts in the collection, while Pierre-Maurice Bogaert considers one manuscript in particular, now located at the Bibliothèque de la société archéologique at Namur, a triple Psalter, that is, a Psalter with three versions printed side by side.

There follow twelve essays that consider various aspects of the collection. Most treat one of the categories of books into which the catalog was divided. Jean-Pierre Delville considers the Bibles, exegetical works, and collections of sermons. Steven Gyesens treats the church fathers; Toon Van Houdt, writers of the scholastic and casuistic works. Lambert Vos writes of the liturgical and spiritual works; Claude Vael, the juridical works; Marie-Sylvie Dupont-Bouchat, the works that concern demonology and sorcery; Dries Vanysacker and Jan Papys, the historical works; Claude Sorgeloos, the humanistic works; Carmélia Opsomer and Robert Halleux, the philosophical and political works (including, as was the custom of the time, mathematics and science).

Six more essays concern the library as a whole. Luc Knapen, the editor, supplies four of them. In one he considers the physical placement of the library in the monastery itself, basing his observations on the example of other Benedictine monasteries of the area, the description of a person who was present at the time of the fire, and other sources. He also considers the placement of the various categories of books within the library. In other essays he discusses the development of the library and the dispersal of the collection after the suppression.

A final essay brings together the main points of the essays on the various categories of classification, noting those observations that were made by most if not all of the authors, that is, the lack of Protestant titles in the collection, the emphasis on the Counter-Reformation as a result of the recently concluded Council of Trent, and the fact that the choice of titles shows that the library was intended for practical use and not for advanced research. For example, the library lacks Bibles in Greek and Hebrew. Throughout the volume, many perceptive observations are made about the collection and, further, about what the content of the collection says about the religious and cultural aspects of seventeenth-century Europe.

The second volume...