ACHERY, JEAN-LUC d' (Dacherius). — A learned editor of ancient ecclesiastical texts, born at S. Quintino in 1609, he became a Benedictine of the Maurist congregation in 1632 and died on 29 April 1685 at the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where he had been librarian since 1637.
Although sickly, he studied tirelessly and initiated his confrères, among them J. Mabillon, into scholarly activity. He collected and published many valuable library holdings. His compilations include first and foremost the collection Veterum scriptorum qui in Galliae bibliothecis, maxime Benedictorum, laturant spiciligium, 13 vols., Paris 1655–1677; the third edition, revised and reorganized by L. F. J. de la Barre, was published in Paris in 1723 under the title: Spiciligium sive collectio veterum aliquot scriptorum (in 3 vols.). This collection, which also contains various documents comprising the acts of councils and other important legal sources, includes the first publication (vol. IX, p. 1 ff.) of a systematic collection, consequently called Dacheriana, of councils and decretals, compiled in France between 774 and 831 and 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 (in the appendix: the life of St Augustine, apostle of the Anglo-Saxons), Paris 1648; Guiberti abb. de Novitiatu opera, ibid. 1651; Grimlaici regula Solitoriorum, ibid. 1653; and the unpublished work of 1648 (Bibl. Naz. Paris, F. F. 16866, f. 120) entitled: Responses aux raisons des chanoines de l'ordre Saint-Augustin, de Sainte-Générale de Paris, et l'establissement du droit que les religieux de Saint-Germain-des-Prés ont de préséance dans les assemblées publiques et particulièrement ès enterremens des Roys. He was also among the principal collaborators on the Acta SS. Ord. s. Benedicti, and left an extensive correspondence (unpublished) with the scholars of his time.