Paris, André Pralard, 1694.
12mo with (12) ll. 484 pp. and (1) l.
Red morocco, double gilt fillet around the covers with Duseuil-style corner fleurons, richly decorated ribbed spine, inner border, gilt edges. Contemporary binding attributable to Boyet.
168 x 93 mm.
Rare original edition of “La vie des gens mariez” by Girard de Villethierry.
The author, Jean Girard de Ville-Thierri (1641-1709) divided his life between his duties as an ecclesiastic and the composition of a large number of works of piety which, collected together, could make up a body of practical morals for all states of society.
The work was a huge success when it was published, thanks to Madame de Maintenon, a close friend to the abbe who recommended reading it.
At the end of Louis XIV’s reign, Madame de Maintenon ushered in an era of devotion and austerity at court. It considerably increased the clergy’s clout and had a real influence on the King, notably in the decision that led to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.
The author’s treatise is enlightening and solid, drawing on the authority of Sacred Scripture, the Fathers and the Councils, to propose the rules that everyone should follow. There reigns a noble simplicity that is suitable for this kind of books.
“Peace does not reign long between people who have not consulted God about the covenant they wish to enter into, & who are united only by motives of interest, ambition, or sensuality; & far from preserving a holy union between them, they grieve each other by their bad moods & by their impatience; they even become enemies in several encounters & they persecute each other with all kinds of animosity.
As most married people behave only in the spirit of the world, it happens every day that they start an infinite number of injustices in the dispensation of their goods: sometimes they love them excessively, & they fall into avarice; & sometimes they spend them profusely, & they make them serve their debaucheries: & we see several of them who excite disorder & division in their families by the unequal division they make of them.
They almost always neglect to apply themselves to the education of their children, & many of them give them an entirely pagan education, & entirely opposed to the spirit of the Gospel, & by this means they are guilty of most of the abuses which are committed in the various conditions, either Ecclesiastical, or, secular ; for the children they bring up badly, fill, when they reach manhood, the offices and jobs of the Church and the Republic, & they usually bring there the passions & bad dispositions in which they have kept them during their youth.
It is to prevent all these different evils, & to guard the faithful against them, that I have undertaken this treatise.” (Gérard de Villethierry).
A superb wide-margined copy in a remarkable contemporary morocco binding attributable to Boyet.
