Mirror for young Catholics
PICQUET, Gilles Jaques. Ecole Chrestienne, où le Miroir de la jeunesse, auquel elle trouvera, comme elle doit honnestement converser, aller, venir, parler; & plusieurs autres vertueuses instructions tres-utiles; & necessaires à la jeunesse: poëtiquement composé. Brussels: Chez Martin de Bossuyt, Imprimeur juré de la ville. 1668.
4to. Recent half calf over marbled boards, spine ruled and lettered in gilt; pp. [8], 63, [1]; woodcut initials, head- and tailpiece, woodcut printer’s device to final blank; trimmed close at head touching titles and running titles; contemporary inscription “XII.” and “Oratorij Bruxellensis” to title page (see below); contemporary markings in ink to a few pages.
First and only edition, exceedingly rare, of this educational poem on proper conduct for Catholic youth.
L’Ecole Chrétienne, or Miroir de la jeunesse, is a poem in French alexandrine verse offering a comprehensive guide to cultivating civility and moral integrity in young people. The work is organised into thirty-five chapters, each providing practical advice with titles such as “Avoid incivility”, “Learn Latin”, “Respect the priests”, “How to behave in churches”, and “How to serve the table”. Nearly every facet of youthful propriety is addressed. Chapter 25, “Avoid the Huguenots”, warns that “all their false loyalties are held together like the strings of a gated instrument, whose discordant sounds serve only to offend the ear” – a sentiment that foreshadows the revocation of the Edict of Nantes more than fifteen years later.
Virtually nothing is known about the author, Gille Jacque Picquet, who styled himself as “Maistre de la plume d’or” (master of the golden quill). The volume is dedicated to Antoine de Dyn, who became écolâtre (headmaster) of the cathedral school of Brussels in 1664 (see Alfred Félix d’Hoop, Inventaire général des archives ecclésiastiques du Brabant).
Provenance: From the library of the Oratory of Brussels. The Congregation of the Oratorians was invited from France by Jacobus Boonen (1573-1655), Archbishop of Mechelen, to counter the expanding influence of the Jesuits. The Oratory was demolished in 1795, and its library dispersed.
We have found only one other copy at the Royal Library of Belgium.
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