The Eudist library at Laval University

“On November 1, the Laval University Library welcomed the Eudists of Quebec for a recognition ceremony highlighting the exceptional donation made to the University by this religious congregation. This donation, whose value is estimated at $185,000, includes approximately 1,300 old books – the oldest of which dates from 1559 –, approximately 4,000 postcards from Quebec, Canada and Europe and more than 1,400 photographs on glass from the beginning of the 20th century, accompanied by the period viewer.”

(Taken from: le Fil, Volume 52, number | November 2, 2016)

By Mr. Richard Dufour, consulting librarian, Laval University Library

Editor’s note: The Eudists thank Mr. Dufour for the exceptional work carried out which contributes greatly to the conservation of our historical heritage.  We reproduce here extracts from Mr. Dufour's document which testifies to his professionalism.

Click here for the original document

Our warmest thanks go to the Les Eudistes Corporation for their generous donation and in particular to their spokesperson in this matter, Father Gilles Ouellet, who was unfailingly kind, welcoming and efficient. He also took photographs of the title pages of the works in the collection, with the help of Robert Berger.

In March 2015, Eudist Father Gilles Ouellet contacted Laval University to explore the interest it would have in their collection of old books, postcards, photographs on glass and objects. Following a visit to the Eudist house in Charlesbourg, librarians Richard Dufour and Sonia Léger recommended that the management of the Laval University Library recover almost all of the donated works, and all of the photographs and postcards. From the beginning of April, the Library confirmed its interest and initiated procedures with the Eudists. Several steps had to be taken, both on the Eudist side, for authorizations for transfer by the corporation, and on the Library side, for a proposed donation agreement. The agreement was concluded in March 2016. The documents were boxed by Library employees and the donation was received at Laval University in May 2016. We estimated at the time that the donation represented approximately 1,300 old books, 4,000 postcards from Quebec, Canada and Europe, and more than 1,400 photographs on glass. The book collection actually amounts to 1647 documents.

The founder of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (Eudists), Saint Jean Eudes, was born in Ri in Normandy in 1601 and died in Caen in 1680. The congregation was involved in evangelization missions and in the training of the clergy by creating or administering seminaries and colleges. Eudist establishments were found, for example, in Caen, Redon and Rennes. The congregation went through difficult times. Having gone through the Revolution, it was confronted a century later with the Waldeck Rousseau law of March 1901 on associations. The religious orders had to ask the French government for the right to carry out their activities as an association. The government refused outright the requests of religious congregations in order to weaken clerical power and appropriate their property. The Eudists knew how to read the warning signs of the coming disaster and reacted before the official expulsion of the religious communities in July 1903. As Basile Babin reports:

Following the closure of Eudist colleges in the Atlantic provinces, mainly the Holy Heart Seminary in Halifax, the collection of old books was consolidated in the Eudist house on 1st Avenue in Charlesbourg, Quebec. 

On Eudists in Canada, consult Georges de La Cotardière, The congregation of Jesus and Mary (Eudists) in Canada: Fifty years 1890-1940, Besançon, Imprimerie Jacques et Demontrond, 1946.

The latter in turn having to close, the collection was graciously offered to Laval University in spring 2015.

We will carry out a detailed analysis of the Eudist collection. It mainly includes monographs and only three periodical titles. The library was evaluated in January and February 2016 by Jean-Claude Veilleux, bookseller in Quebec. He then established the fair market value at $175,650.

The physical condition of the books varies. The majority are in excellent condition, a minority is damaged, and a few titles are in a condition that makes them more difficult to consult. As part of a library collection, the works have often been the subject of interventions to facilitate their identification. These interventions are unprofessional and distort the volumes. Adhesive tapes of various compositions are affixed to certain volumes: at the top to indicate the author, at the bottom to indicate the year of publication and sometimes the volume number. More damaged books were sometimes solidified by adding adhesive tape. Here are examples that summarize the cases where adhesives have been used:

The library received as a donation from the Eudists was located at their house in Charlesbourg. The documents rested on suitable Montel brand shelving, in a basement room. Preservation conditions were good, with cooler temperature and darkness. The books were arranged in chronological order. The large formats were lying on the shelves.

The monograph collection includes 894 titles. If we consider the number of documents, including the multiple volumes that certain titles include, the total rises to 1647 documents. The majority of titles were not already in the collections of the Laval University Library.

A little more than half of the monographs date from the 19th century. Very few documents are from the 16th and 20th centuries, firstly due to the scarcity of 16th century volumes, then by the decision to take only a few documents from the 20th century. Volumes from the 19th century which were too damaged or too common, such as Migne's patrology, were not retained. 11 titles have unknown or uncertain dates and were not included in the statistics.

The library consists of a majority of books in French. Latin also stands out, with other languages ​​having no significant presence except English. French and Latin represent 89.26% of the collection.

The distribution of languages ​​varies over the centuries. Latin dominates for documents from the 16th and 17th centuries. French clearly exceeded Latin in the 18th century: even if the collection almost doubled in total, the presence of Latin decreased by almost half, while works in French were almost five times more numerous than before. English makes a timid appearance in the volumes of the 18th century and gains strength in the 19th century.

Most of the collection comes from the Eudists of France, it is not surprising that the library contains an imposing majority of books published in France. The rest of the works are European, with the notable exception of American books, which account for 6% of the collection. The eight countries below represent 98.08% of the Eudist library.

Among the titles published in France, almost half were published in Paris. More than a hundred titles were published in Lyon. The five cities below are equivalent to 65.87% of the places of publication in the Eudists collection.

The titles published in the United States come primarily from New York and Philadelphia.

As for Belgium, the works were mainly published in Antwerp and Brussels.

The library has 466 authors, of which the five main authors represent 12.12% of the works. The collection obviously includes documents from the Catholic Church and particularly important saints of the time, including Alphonsus Liguori and Thomas Aquinas. The theologian and biblical scholar Cornelius a Lapide occupies an important place, with his works in various editions. Massillon's sermons also receive special attention.

The collection stands out for the importance given to the works of popes, saints and theologians, including Pope Damasus, Pope Gregory I, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Saint-Augustin, Anselm, John Chrysostom, François de Sales, Fénelon, Louis Thomassin, Suarez, Robert Bellarmine and many others. Many editions of the Bible according to the Vulgate are present, as well as many editions of sermons. The 614 titles below, grouped into the 16 most frequent subjects, represent 68.67% of the library.

The monographs bear numerous marks of ownership coming from institutions or individuals. These can be stamps, bookplates or signatures. Appendix 1 provides some examples of property marks that appear in the volumes. These marks make it possible to trace the origin of the works and the various owners. The practices of institutions and individuals varied greatly. Some systematically made their mark, others seem to have had no interest in doing so. It is difficult to know the circumstances of the possessions. Several monographs belonged to various institutions and various individuals without us knowing when they were integrated into the collection received from the Eudists.

Volume rarity was approximated by searching titles in WorldCat to estimate the number of copies in libraries around the world. A book is considered rare here if there are fewer than 5 copies in WorldCat. As the reliability of the identification and collection states in this tool is questionable, one must be very careful with this estimate. We did not count works which seemed rare, but which were widely distributed. For example, Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica has been so widely distributed in various editions that a specific copy, rare according to WorldCat, is probably not that rare. We have not taken into account the availability of works on the used market.

The Eudist library has very few serial publications. The periodicals concerned relate to the First World War. We find volumes 5, 9, 10 and 12 of The great war: the standard history of the all-Europe conflict, published in London by Amalgamated Press in 1914-1918. Even more interesting are the nine volumes bound to form a collection on the Great War. They bring together several issues of The Illustrated London news, published between 1914 and 1919, among which issues of Sphère and Graphic are inserted chronologically. This set specially created by the Eudists is in a magnificent state of conservation and is easy to read with its quality cardboard binding. The binding is sometimes damaged, but the interior is impeccable.

The only religious periodical is the Annales catholiques: weekly religious review of France and the Church, volumes 24 (1878) to 90 (1894), published in Paris by M. Putois-Cretté.

The complete descriptive catalog presents several lists which allow identification according to various criteria.