Mystical Manuscript Book

Mystical Manuscript Book. Spiritual Conferences. circa 1680-1700. French mystical manuscript written around 1680–1700, Octavo (8vo), bound in contemporary full brown calf leather, raised bands spine, title piece, marbled endpapers. 334 pp. Small abrasions on the upper board, interior very fresh, very good condition. The work is entirely written in a single hand in brown iron gall ink on laid paper, with regular calligraphy, ornate titles, and pen trials at the end of the volume; signs of a trained scribe, very likely from a conventual background. The whole constitutes a complete mystical treatise, of remarkable material and doctrinal coherence. The text develops a highly structured spiritual architecture, in the form of responses, characteristic of French Carmelite mysticism of the late 17th century, while presenting marked accents of passive abandonment and inner annihilation, typical of pre-Quietist circles. The first part exposes the five types of spiritual death, corresponding to the progressive destruction of the corporeal, civil, moral, human, and spiritual being. The second part presents the five types of life that correspond to them, describing the successive states of mystical union: sensible taste, honor and glory, prayer, freedom of spirit, and consummated spiritual life. The third part deals with the active and passive annihilation of the soul, its elevation to divine life, its conduct in the final degrees of detachment, and the ultimate dispositions of unitive life. This manuscript, homogeneous, complete, and doctrinally dense, constitutes a rare testimony of French spirituality at the end of the reign of Louis XIV, at the border of Theresian Carmelitism and nascent Quietism. It presents a major interest for the study of female mystical networks, the theology of union, and the manuscript transmission of contemplative doctrines in the 17th century. Summary: Chapter I On the state of union in itself, its prerogatives, its effects, its vocation, its means, and the five types of death and life necessary to achieve it in general. Chapter II On the first type of death, through the destruction of the corporeal being. Chapter III On the second type of death, through the destruction of the civil being. Chapter IV On the third type of death, through the destruction of the moral being. Chapter V On the fourth type of death, through the destruction of the human being. Chapter VI On the fifth type of death, through the destruction of the spiritual being. Chapter VII On the first type of life, found in the union of taste and sensible consolation, corresponding to the first type of death of the corporeal being. Chapter VIII On the second type of life, of honor and glory, corresponding to the second type of death of the civil being. Chapter IX On the third type of life, of prayer, corresponding to the third type of death of the moral being. Chapter X On the fourth type of life, of independence and freedom of spirit, corresponding to the fourth type of death of the human being. Chapter XI On the fifth type of life, corresponding to the fifth type of death of the spiritual being and its consolations. Chapter XII On the occupation of the soul in the state of divine life, and its active annihilation. Chapter XIII On the first manner of passive annihilation of the soul elevated to the state of divine life. Chapter XIV On the second manner of passive annihilation of the soul in the state of divine life. Chapter XV How the soul should behave in the aforementioned final annihilations. Chapter XVI On the dispositions of the soul in the state of divine life.