History Of The Royal Abbey Of Saint-germain-des-prés, 1724, First Edition

Dom Jacques Bouillart – History of the Royal Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Paris, Grégoire Dupuis, 1724.

A rare and important history of the famous Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, written by Dom Jacques Bouillart, a monk of the Congregation of Saint-Maur, an order renowned for the rigor of its historical scholarship.

The work traces the history of the abbey from its Merovingian foundation under Childebert I through the early 18th century. It describes the abbots who governed it, the privileges granted by sovereigns, the royal and princely donations, as well as the monuments, tombs, and treasures preserved in the abbey.

The illustrations are one of the major attractions of this edition. It includes several finely executed copperplate engravings, presented as separate plates, among which are:

• a general view of the abbey and its outbuildings;
• detailed plans of the monastic buildings and the church;
• depictions of the royal and princely tombs preserved in the abbey church;
• various remarkable funerary figures and monuments;
• a beautiful allegorical engraved frontispiece;
• several engraved initials, headpieces, and footpieces.

These plates are of major documentary interest today, as they bear witness to the state of the abbey prior to the 18th-century renovations and the destruction wrought by the Revolution.

A fine copy of this work, which has become an indispensable reference for the history of Paris, the Benedictine Order, and one of the most prestigious royal abbeys in the Kingdom of France.
328 pages
24 plates, including 3 double-page spreads by Chaufournier
worn brown calfskin binding of the period, decorated ribbed spine, missing sections at the top and bottom of the spine, covers rubbed.