[MANUSCRIT]. [DEVOTION]. [BOSSUET (Jacques-Benigne)]. - Lot 86

[MANUSCRIT]. [DEVOTION]. [BOSSUET (Jacques-Benigne)]. The Song of Songs of Solomon with the explanation of Monseigneur l'Evesque de Meaux. 1695. [addition at the bottom of the page]. By M. Ledieu, chancellor of the Church of Meaux. In French, manuscript on paper France, Meaux, dated 1695 318 pp, preceded by 7 ff. of endpapers and followed by 4 ff. of endpapers, beautiful calligraphic writing in brown ink, justification in red ink, title and headings in calligraphic ink. Bound in dark red morocco, spine ribbed, gilt lettering on the spine "Cantique", simple cold fillet on the boards, scrolls on the edges and inside, gilt edges, marbled paper endpapers turned. Some spotting and rubbing to the binding but good condition. Dimensions : 135 x 190 mm. Beautiful calligraphy manuscript, bound to François Ledieu, Bossuet's secretary in Meaux. Bossuet's commentary on the Cantique des cantiques is addressed to nuns. Bossuet interprets the Song as the wedding song of Solomon and Pharaoh's daughter, a collection of epithalams, that is, poems that were recited to the newlyweds on their wedding day. The text of Bossuet is preserved in a certain number of manuscripts (Paris, BnF, fr. 12811; Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 12 (copy of Monmerqué)), then was published several times of which Bossuet, Œuvres complètes, t. I, Paris, Vivès, 1862, pp. 609-678. The present manuscript contains a note attributing the work (or rather its copy) to François Ledieu. François Ledieu (1658-1713) was the secretary of the bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (1627-1704) in Meaux during twenty years. A portrait of him by Hyacinthe Rigaud is known (see James-Sarazin, 2016, II, cat. *P.761, p. 253). Born in 1658 in the province of Péronne and dying in Paris in 1713, Ledieu studied in his native town before arriving in Paris (1676). He became Magister and Doctor of Theology (1681), then joined the secretariat of Abbé Bossuet (1684). Bossuet gave him a priory and appointed him as one of the "gentlemen of the cathedral" (1697). Ledieu became chancellor and was given the supervision of the schools of the diocese. His main function was to support Bossuet's publications, a task from which he drew many arguments about Jansenism and Quietism. His Mémoires et Journal sur la vie et les ouvrages de Bossuet (Paris, 1856) is considered a very important source of church history. Provenance: A note slipped into the book reads: "Bourges, 28 November 1868. Homage, To Madame la Comtesse de la Guere née de Puyvallée at the Château des Dames".