La Vie Admirable De La Tres-Illustre, & tres Vertueuse Dame Marthe D’Oraison.
Lyon, J. Molin 1671.
12mo (136 x 79 mm.). [xxiv], 327, [4], [3 blank]p. — lacks portrait.
19th-century gilt-ruled polished tan calf and marbled boards (rubbed), spine and dark blue label gilt, all edges gilt, parti-colored silk marker.
First Edition of this life of the extraordinary Marthe d’Oraison (1590-1627), who engaged in severe austerities in public and private at the behest of Véronique Bonaud, a lay woman much her social inferior. Marthe was born a marchioness, orphaned at age four, married at twenty to a Vicount and widowed at twenty-one while with child. She raised her daughter Gabrielle, and, in 1621-22, they vainly sought admission to the Capuchin convent in Paris (the only such in France).
In 1622 POPE URBAN VIII GRANTED HER PERMISSION TO FOUND HER OWN CAPUCHIN CONVENT in Marseilles, where her exacting physical discipline and selfless service to the poor was shared by all who joined the convent. In 1626 Capuchin authorities denounced these practices, and Marthe journeyed to Paris, where, again refused entry to the convent, she lived on the streets tending the poor and sick until her death the following year. I have located two other examples (both in France). The copy offered here does not have a portrait. In good condition (last line of the imprint shaved), armorial bookplate of bibliophile Paul Arbaud (1832-1911), later bookplate of Hugues Taÿ, ?a relative of Marie Taÿ the biographer of Marthe d’Oraison.
¶Grimaret, “Savoir lire le corps de l’autre: la biographie hagiographique et le travail de la preuve (autour des Vies de Marthe d’Oraison et Agnès d’Aquillenqui)” in Les Dossieres de Grihl [Groupe de Recherches Interdisciplinaires sur l’Histoire du Littéraire] 7.XII.2015 https://doi.org/10.4000/dossiersgrihl.6355.
Price: $1,350.00