| I.—The Editions of the Fathers | |||
Epistle of Barnabas (editio princeps) | Ménard | 1645 | 1 in 4to |
Lanfranc | d’Achery | 1648 | 1 |
Guibert of Nogent | d’Achery | 1651 | 1 |
Robert Pulleyn and Peter of Poitiers | Mathou | 1655 | 1 |
Bernard | Mabillon | 1667 | 2 |
Anselm | Gerberon | 1675 | 1 |
Cassiodorus | Garet | 1679 | 1 |
Augustine (see Kukula, Die Mauriner-Ausgabe des Augustinus, 1898) | Delfau, Blampin, Coustant, Guesnie | 1681-1700 | 11 |
Ambrose | du Frische | 1686-1690 | 2 |
Acta martyrum sincera | Ruinart | 1689 | 1 |
Hilary | Coustant | 1693 | 1 |
Jerome | Martianay | 1693-1706 | 5 |
Athanasius | Loppin and Montfaucon | 1698 | 3 |
Gregory of Tours | Ruinart | 1699 | 1 |
Gregory the Great | Sainte-Marthe | 1705 | 4 |
Hildebert of Tours | Beaugendre | 1708 | 1 |
Irenaeus | Massuet | 1710 | 1 |
Chrysostom | Montfaucon | 1718-1738 | 13 |
Cyril of Jerusalem | Touttée and Maran | 1720 | 1 |
Epistolae romanorum pontificum[2] | Coustant | 1721 | 1 |
Basil | Garnier and Maran | 1721-1730 | 3 |
Cyprian | (Baluze, not a Maurist) finished by Maran | 1726 | 1 |
Origen | Ch. de la Rue (1, 2, 3) V. de la Rue (4) | 1733-1759 | 4 |
Justin and the Apologists | Maran | 1742 | 1 |
Gregory Nazianzen[3] | Maran and Clémencet | 1778 | 1 |
| II.—Biblical Works | |||
St Jerome’s Latin Bible | Martianay | 1693 | 1 |
Origen’s Hexapla | Montfaucon | 1713 | 2 |
Old Latin versions | Sabbathier | 1743-1749 | 3 |
| III.—Great Collections of Documents | |||
Spicilegium | d’Achery | 1655-1677 | 13 in 4to |
Veterae analecta | Mabillon | 1675-1685 | 4 in 8vo |
Musaeum italicum | Mabillon | 1687-1689 | 2 in 4to |
Collectio nova patrum graecorum | Montfaucon | 1706 | 2 |
Thesaurus novus anecdotorum | Martène and Durand | 1717 | 5 |
Veterum scriptorum collectio | Martène and Durand | 1724-1733 | 9 |
De antiquis ecclesiaeritibus | Martène | 1690-1706 | |
| (Final form) | 1736-1738 | 4 |
| IV.—Monastic History | |||
Acta of the Benedictine Saints | d’Achery, Mabillon and Ruinart | 1668-1701 | 9 |
Benedictine Annals (to 1157) | Mabillon (1-4), Massuet (5), Martène (6) | 1703-1739 | 6 |
| V.—Ecclesiastical History and Antiquities of France | |||
| A.—General. | |||
Gallia Christiana (3 other vols. were published 1856-1865) | Sainte-Marthe (1, 2, 3) | 1715-1785 | 13 |
Monuments de la monarchie française | Montfaucon | 1729-1733 | 5 |
Histoire littéraire de la France (16 other vols. were published 1814-1881) | Rivet, Clémencet, Clément | 1733-1763 | 12 in 4to |
Recueil des historiens de la France (4 other vols. were published 1840-1876) | Bouquet (1-8), Brial (12-19) | 1738-1833 | 19 |
Concilia Galliae (the printing of vol. ii. was interrupted by the Revolution; there were to have been 8 vols.) | Labbat | 1789 | 1 |
| B.—Histories of the Provinces. | |||
Bretagne | Lobineau | 1707 | 2 |
Paris | Félibien and Lobineau | 1725 | 5 |
Languedoc | Vaissette and de Vic | 1730-1745 | 5 |
Bourgogne | Plancher (1-3), Merle (4) | 1739-1748, 1781 | 4 |
Bretagne | Morice | 1742-1756 | 5 |
| VI.—Miscellaneous Works of Technical Erudition | |||
De re diplomatica | Mabillon | 1681 | 1 |
Ditto Supplement | Mabillon | 1704 | 1 |
Nouveau traité de diplomatique | Toustain and Tassin | 1750-1765 | 6 in 4to |
Paleographia graeca | Montfaucon | 1708 | 1 |
Bibliotheca coisliniana | Montfaucon | 1715 | 1 |
Bibliotheca bibliothecarum manuscriptorum nova | Montfaucon | 1739 | 2 |
L’Antiquité expliqué | Montfaucon | 1719-1724 | 15 |
New ed. of Du Cange’s glossarium | Dantine and Carpentier | 1733-1736 | 6 |
Ditto Supplement | Carpentier | 1766 | 4 |
Apparatus ad bibliothecam maximam patrum | le Nourry | 1703 | 2 |
L’Art de vérifier les dates | Dantine, Durand, Clémencet | 1750 | 1 in 4to |
Ed. 2 | Clément | 1770 | 1 |
Ed. 3 | Clément | 1783-1787 | 3 |
The 58 works in the above list comprise 199 great folio volumes and 39 in 4to or 8vo. The full Maurist bibliography contains the names of some 220 writers and more than 700 works. The lesser works in large measure cover the same fields as those in the list, but the number of works of purely religious character, of piety, devotion and edification, is very striking. Perhaps the most wonderful phenomenon of Maurist work is that what was produced was only a portion of what was contemplated and prepared for. The French Revolution cut short many gigantic undertakings, the collected materials for which fill hundreds of manuscript volumes in the Bibliothèque nationale of Paris and other libraries of France. There are at Paris 31 volumes of Berthereau’s materials for the Historians of the Crusades, not only in Latin and Greek, but in the oriental tongues; from them have been taken in great measure the Recueil des historiens des croisades, whereof 15 folio volumes have been published by the Académie des Inscriptions. There exist also the preparations for an edition of Rufinus and one of Eusebius, and for the continuation of the Papal Letters and of the Concilia Galliae. Dom Caffiaux and Dom Villevielle left 236 volumes of materials for a Trésor généalogique. There are Benedictine Antiquities (37 vols.), a Monasticon Gallicanum and a Monasticon Benedictinum (54 vols.). Of the Histories of the Provinces of France barely half a dozen were printed, but all were in hand, and the collections for the others fill 800 volumes of MSS. The materials for a geography of Gaul and France in 50 volumes perished in a fire during the Revolution.
When these figures were considered, and when one contemplates the vastness of the works in progress during any decade of the century 1680-1780; and still more, when not only the quantity but the quality of the work, and the abiding value of most of it is realized, it will be recognized that the output was prodigious and unique in the history of letters, as coming from a single society. The qualities that have made Maurist work proverbial for sound learning are its fine critical tact and its thoroughness.
The chief source of information on the Maurists and their work is Dom Tassin’s Histoire littéraire de la congregation de Saint-Maur (1770); it has been reduced to a bare bibliography and completed by de Lama, Bibliothèque des écrivains de la congr. de S.-M. (1882). The two works of de Broglie, Mabillon (2 vols., 1888) and Montfaucon (2 vols., 1891), give a charming picture of the inner life of the great Maurists of the earlier generation in the midst of their work and their friends. Sketches of the lives of a few of the chief Maurists will be found in McCarthy’s Principal Writers of the Congr. of S. M. (1868). Useful information about their literary undertakings will be found in De Lisle’s Cabinet des MSS. de la Bibl. Nat. Fonds St Germain-des-Prés. General information will be found in the standard authorities: Helyot, Hist. des ordres religieux (1718), vi. c. 37; Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen (1907) i. § 36; Wetzer und Welte, Kirchenlexicon (ed. 2) and Herzog-Hauck’s Realencyklopädie (ed. 3), the latter an interesting appreciation by the Protestant historian Otto Zöckler of the spirit and the merits of the work of the Maurists.
(E. C. B.)
[1] His festival is kept on the 15th of January. He founded the monastery of Glanfeuil or St Maur-sur-Loire.
[2] 14 vols. of materials collected for the continuation are at Paris.
[3] The printing of vol. ii. was impeded by the Revolution.
