FÉNELON (François de). Explanation of the maxims... Lot 46

FÉNELON (François de). Explanation of the maxims of the saints on the interior life. In Paris, by P. Auboin, P., Emery, C. Clousier, 1697. In-12, [18] f., 272 p., midnight blue morocco, spine with 5 nerves, title, place and date gilt, small ornamented boxes, triple gilt fillet bordering the boards, double fillet at the edges, inner lace, edges gilt on marble [Duru, 1857] (slight rubbing at the edge of the head-board and on 3 corners; freckles) First edition, copy of first printing. The publication of this work marks the culmination in France of a long quarrel about quietism, a movement of theological thought launched by the Spanish priest Miguel de Molinos, and condemned by the Church of Rome as early as 1687. Fénelon, posing as a defender of this new doctrine, drew the wrath of Bossuet who saw in it an ideology capable of undermining the authority of the Church, and the work was condemned by Rome in 1699. Some copies have an errata page, absent from this one (attached in reproduction). (Tchémerzine II, 167).