LEROQUAIS, VICTOR-MARTIAL. - French priest, liturgist, b. at St-Germain-de-Tallevende (diocese of Bayeux, department of Calvados) on 7 Sept. 1875, d. in Paris on 1 March 1946. He began his studies at Vire (1887) and completed them successfully at the Seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris (1900). A priest from 9 June 1900, he exercised the pastoral ministry for twelve years in his diocese, before being able to settle in Paris to devote himself to scholarly research. He was honorary canon of Notre-Dame (15 Jan. 1938) and vice-president, for his merits in the field of liturgical studies, of the Henry Bradshaw Society of London (1939). The pious and learned L., who left to scholars, in particular to students of liturgy, working tools of primary importance, rests in the small parish of Bény-sur-Mer, where he was a zealous parish priest from 1906 to 1912.
Initially L.'s research had as its aim to illustrate the historical-liturgical development of the Holy Mass, but it soon extended to the content and the ornamentation of the principal liturgical books. He became a specialist and a master in their description and, thanks to his vast historical, paleographical and liturgical culture, he knew how to grasp all their peculiarities capable of interesting scholars. The notices that he devotes to each manuscript, sober and exhaustive, are always written with an impeccable method: a manuscript analyzed by L. no longer holds any secrets for other scholars. He was endowed with a fine artistic taste that is revealed both by the choice of the plates outside the text (more than 1500), which abundantly adorn even his shortest study, and by the elegant typographical dress with which he presented his great catalogues, published almost always at his own expense, given the publishers' distrust of this kind of publication. He made several times the complete round of all the French public libraries: for example, from the end of 1912 to 1914, from 1919 to 1923, from 1929 to 1933 etc. The material collected and revised against the originals is truly enormous, as the following mighty publications bear witness (about fifteen of lesser bulk are omitted): Les sacramentaires et missels manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France (3 vols. in-4º of text and 1 of plates, Paris 1924), in which 914 manuscripts from the 7th-8th to the 18th century are described (cf. supplement, another 10 manuscripts from the 12th century, inserted in vol. V of the Bréviaires, pp. 420-41, and supplement added to vol. II of the Pontificaux, pp. 429-62); Les Livres d'Heures manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale (2 vols. in-4º of text and 1 of plates, ibid. 1927), in which 313 manuscripts delightful for their content and ornamentation, from the 12th to the 17th century, are described, followed by the Supplément aux Livres d'Heures manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale (1 vol. in-4º, with plates, ibid. 1943), a description of the new acquisitions;
Le Bréviaire de Philippe le Bon. Bréviaire Parisien du XVᵉ siècle (2 vols. in-fol. of text, 1 of plates, Brussels 1929), an important manuscript, probably set up by G. Vrelant; Les Bréviaires manuscrits des bibl. pub. de France (5 vols., in-4º, of text, 1 of plates, Paris 1934), in which 1034 manuscripts from the 11th century onward are described; Les Pontificaux manuscrits des bibl. pub. de France (3 vols. in-4º of text, 1 of plates, ibid. 1937), where 233 manuscripts from the 9th to the 16th century are described; Les Psautiers manuscrits latins des bibl. pub. de France (2 vols. in-4º of text, 1 of plates, Mâcon 1940-41), in which 472 manuscripts from the 6th to the 18th century are described (another 23 manuscripts are described in an appendix: breviaries, books of Hours etc.). Finally he left ready for the press the edition of the important Sacramentaire de Gellone, which will be published under the care of the Bibliothèque nationale under the direction of dom Hesbert, O.S.B. (to provide for the expenses of this edition in 2 vols. of text and 1 of plates, L. completed the heroic act of pledging his library) and the Evangélaire carolingien dit de François II, ms. lat. 257 of the Bibliothèque nationale. Of great importance are the dense introductions prefixed to his catalogues, in which the genetic and artistic developments of the Missal, the Breviary, the Pontifical, the Psalter and the Book of Hours are studied. Proverbial was L.'s cordiality with the scholars or students who asked for his advice.
Bibliography4 works
Pietro Frutaz
