The Library of the Abbey of La Trappe: A Study of its History from the Twelfth Century to the French Revolution, with an Annotated Edition of the 1752 Catalogue by David N. Bell (review)

Medievalists will be familiar with David N. Bell’s formidable publications in the area of medieval manuscript and Cistercian studies. His latest book, which includes a study of the library of the Cistercian abbey of La Trappe and the role in its development of its great reforming abbot, Armand-Jean de Rancé, moves into the terrain of post-medieval French monastic history. Three-quarters of this volume, however, consist of an annotated edition of the monastery’s 1752 library catalogue, arranged ‘par ordres de matières’ and ‘par ordre alphabétique’ according to best practice at the time, in which Bell identifies specific editions where possible and valiantly provides brief biographical notices on the authors, some of whom are extremely obscure.

The edition is introduced by six chapters that cover the history of the library and its contents. The book’s sub-title dates La Trappe’s library to the twelfth century: the monastery was founded in Normandy in 1140, flourished until falling victim to the Hundred Years’ War in 1337, and was pillaged several times during the next century. But there is little to say about the library’s early history: Bell has so far identified thirty-four of its medieval manuscripts and the 1752 Catalogue lists only four incunables and a handful of post-incunables.

In the sixteenth century, La Trappe became subject to the commendatory system: the French king regularly appointed non-resident prelates to the abbacy, specifically in 1636 Armand-Jean de Rancé, aged only 11. Carefully educated, the child came from a wealthy family that regarded La Trappe (among other monasteries) as a family cash-cow. But after the death of his mistress in 1657, de Rancé repudiated his worldly life and eventually decided to take his abbatial role seriously, becoming La Trappe’s regular abbot in 1664. After a difficult and controversial life devoted to reform, he died in 1700.

It was de Rancé’s personal collection, mainly of contemporary theology, that provided the nucleus (maybe one-third) of the monastic library. By the mid-eighteenth century the library contained about 4,300 volumes (or between 1940 and 1990 titles), comparable in size to libraries of other Cistercian houses though, we are told, small compared to some Benedictine ones. Of these items, 65 per cent were seventeenth-century publications and 83 per cent were religious or devotional (Bell argues that this is an unusually high proportion). There were also histories, classical texts, and works on the arts, sciences, and language, in spite of Trappist discouragement of secular learning: de Rancé and his successors severely restricted access to the library and to the types of books the monks could read. Between 1752 and 1790 another thousand volumes, mainly works of popular piety and devotion, were added. In 1792 the monastery was suppressed, the library was inventoried and sealed (about a thousand books had already vanished, perhaps to Switzerland with some of the monks) and most of its contents auctioned off.

In his final chapter, Bell addresses the library’s ‘Cistercian dimension’. The collection was short on medieval Cistercian writers, apart from St Bernard himself; later Cistercian writings, many of them little known, are mainly historical or documentary. Cistercians of all stripes (Common Observance, Trappists, Abstinents, Feuillants) contributed less than 10 per cent of the collection.

This is an immensely detailed study on a somewhat recherché topic. It contains much valuable information for those interested in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century religious and book culture, although they may have to dig hard for it. The combination of a diachronic institutional history with a synchronic analysis of the 1752 Catalogue can be confusing and...