ACHERY, JEAN-LUC d' (Dacherius). - A learned editor of ancient ecclesiastical texts, born at Saint-Quentin in 1609, a Benedictine of the Maurist congregation from 1632, died on 29 April 1685 in the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where he had been librarian since 1637.
Though of delicate health, he studied indefatigably and initiated his fellow monks, among them J. Mabillon, into scholarly work. He gathered and published many valuable library collections. Among his compilations, the first place belongs to the collection Veterum scriptorum qui in Galliae bibliothecis, maxime Benedictinorum, lauterant spicilegium, 13 vols., Paris 1655-1677; the 3rd edition, revised and reordered by L. F. J. de la Barre, was published in Paris in 1723 under the title: Spicilegium sive collectio veterum aliquot scriptorum (in 3 vols.). In this collection, which among other things contains various documents of conciliar acts and other important juridical sources, a systematic collection, henceforth called the Dacheriana, of councils and decretals compiled in France between 774 and 831 is published for the first time (vol. IX, p. 1 ff.), divided into three parts dealing respectively with penance, judgments, and the clergy.
Also important is the collection Asceticorum, vulgo spiritualium, opusculorum... indiculus, Paris 1648 (2nd ed. 1671). D'A. also published: B. Lanfranci opera (with an appendix: the life of St Augustine, apostle of the Anglo-Saxons), Paris 1648; Guiberti abb. de Novitiatum opera, ibid. 1651; Grimlaci regula Solitariorum, ibid. 1653; and the unpublished work of 1648 (Bibl. Nat. Paris, F. F. 16866, f. 120) entitled: Response aux raisons des chanoines de l'ordre Saint-Augustin, de Sainte-Génévière de Paris, et l'establishment du droit que les religieux de Saint-Germain-des-Prés ont de préséance dans les assemblées publiques et particulièrement les enterrements des Roys. He was also among the principal collaborators of the Acta SS. Ord. s. Benedicti, and left a vast unpublished correspondence with the learned men of his time.