£495.00
Thiers (Jean-Baptiste). L’Avocat des Pauvres. Qui fait voir l’obligation qu’ont les Bénéficiers de faire un bon usage des biens de l’Église, & d’en assister les Pauvres. Paris: chez la veuve de Jean du Puis, rue S. Jacques, à la Couronne d’or, 1676.
First edition of Jean-Baptiste Thiers’ seventeenth-century treatise arguing the obligation of holders of ecclesiastical benefices to use the wealth of the Church responsibly and, particularly, to provide assistance to the poor.
The title page identifies Thiers as a Bachelor of Theology of the Faculty of Paris and Curé de Champ-rond and carries the Biblical motto from Psalm 139. Printed with decorative typographical ornaments and woodcut initials.
Of particular interest are early manuscript inscriptions on the title page, providing evidence of the volume’s historical ownership or institutional use.
Bound in period full calf with raised bands and remnants of gilt decoration and lettering to the spine; red-stained edges. Binding considerably worn, with cracking and rubbing to the boards, substantial losses to the spine leather and exposed underlying structure. Internally substantially better preserved, with expected toning, occasional marks and spotting consistent with age.
Author: Jean-Baptiste Thiers (1636–1703)
Year: 1676
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Veuve de Jean du Puis, Paris
Language: French
Published in Paris in 1676, L’Avocat des Pauvres — literally “The Advocate of the Poor” — addresses a question that remains strikingly recognisable: what moral obligations accompany institutional wealth?
Jean-Baptiste Thiers was a French Catholic theologian and parish priest known for challenging abuses and questionable practices within ecclesiastical life. In this work, he turned his attention directly to Church property and income.
His argument was uncompromising. Those enjoying ecclesiastical benefices did not possess Church wealth merely for their own advantage. They carried a corresponding duty to employ those resources properly and to provide for people living in poverty.
The opening chapter makes the book’s purpose immediately apparent, declaring the obligation of all Christians to give alms to the poor. What follows places charity within a wider discussion of the responsibilities attached to ecclesiastical property.
More than three centuries later, the book provides a tangible window into debates surrounding wealth, poverty, charity and institutional responsibility in seventeenth-century France.
This is a particularly interesting early theological work because its subject extends beyond purely doctrinal Christianity into the social and economic responsibilities of the Church.
Published in 1676 during the reign of Louis XIV, it is now approximately 350 years old. Its period calf binding, red-stained edges, early manuscript ownership inscriptions and original seventeenth-century typography give the volume considerable historical character.
The binding bears substantial evidence of those centuries of use, but the survival of the book in this largely unrestored state is part of its appeal.
A worthwhile acquisition for collectors of seventeenth-century books, French history, Catholic theology, the history of poverty and charity, or the social history of early modern Europe.
