Edmond Martène

Edmond Martène OSB (born December 22, 1664 in Saint-Jean-de-Losne near Dijon , † June 20, 1739 in Saint-Germain-des-Prés near Paris ) was a French historian and liturgist from the Benedictine order .

Edmond Martène: De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus , Rouen 1700

Life

Martène entered the Saint-Remi Abbey in Reims in 1672 , which was part of the Maurinian congregation. Because of his eagerness to learn , he was sent to Saint-Germain to be trained there by the two Benedictine scholars Luc d'Archéry and Jean Mabillon . He assisted in the preparatory work for a new edition of the Church Fathers . From then on he devoted his life to studying history and liturgy . He stayed in various monasteries of his order, especially in Rouen, where he received the benevolent support of the Prior of Sainte-Marthe . After the death of René Massuet he was editor of the Annales ordinis sancti Benedicti .

Works

Thesaurus novus anecdotorum , 1717

Veterum scriptorum et monumentorum historicorum, dogmaticorum, moralium amplissima collectio , 1724

Even during his student days, Martène collected everything from various sources that could be helpful in explaining the Rule of St. Benedict ; He published the fruit of his labor in 1690 as Commentarius in regulam SP Benedicti litteralis, moralis, historicus ex variis antiquorum scriptorum commentationibus, actis sanctorum, monasticis ritibus aliisque monumentis cum editis tum manuscriptis concinnatus (Paris, 1690; 1695). In the same year he published as a supplement to it De antiquis monachorum ritibus libri 5 collecti ex variis ordinariis, consuetudinariis ritualibusque manuscriptis (Lyon, 1690; Venice, 1765).

Other liturgical works followed these publications:

• De antiquis ecclesiæ ritibus libri 4 (Rouen, 1700–1702)
• Tractatus de antiqua ecclesiæ disciplina in divinis officiis celebrandis (Lyon, 1706)
• De antiquis ecclesiæ ritibus editio secunda (4 volumes, Antwerp, 1736–1738; Venice, 1763–1764; 1783; Bassano, 1788); Collection and expansion of his earlier writings.
• Veterum scriptorum et monumentorum moralium, historicorum, dogmaticorum ad res ecclesiasticas monasticas et politicas illustrandas collectio (Rouen, 1700); Continuation of the Spicilegium of his teacher d'Achéry.
• La vie du vénérable Claude Martin, religieux bénédictin (Tours, 1697; Rouen, 1698)
• Imperialis Stabulensis monasterii jura propugnata adversus iniquas disceptationes (Cologne, 1730)
• Histoire de l'abbaye de Marmoutier ; first published in 1874 and 1875 by Ulysse Chevalier as volume XXIV and XXV of the Mémoires de la Société archéologique de Touraine .

In 1708 Marténe and his brother Ursin Durand were commissioned, at the suggestion of the Prior of Sainte-Marthe , to rummage through the French and Belgian archives for materials for a revised edition of the Gallia Christiana . The numerous documents that they had compiled from around eight hundred abbeys and one hundred cathedrals were incorporated into the above-mentioned work or the five-part work Thesaurus novus anecdotorum (Paris, 1717). The results of a trip through the Netherlands and Germany, which they had undertaken for the purpose of document research, were summarized by the two scholars in the nine-volume work Veterum scriptorum et monumentorum ecclesiasticorum et dogmaticorum amplissima collectio (Paris, 1724–33). In addition to these publications, there is the sixth volume of the Annales Ordinis Sancti Benedicti (Paris, 1739), the fruit of Martène's work alone.

literature

• Entry in Catholic Encyclopedia
• M. Dorothy Neuhofer, In the Benedictine Tradition: The Origins and Early Development of Two College Libraries (Lanham 1999), pp. 47-48.