MARTÈNE, EDMOND. – Maurist Benedictine, French writer and liturgist, born in St-Jean-de-Losne on 22 December 1654, died at St-Germain-des-Prés on 20 June 1739. From the monastery of St-Rémy (1672) he moved to that of St-Denis and then to St-Germain, where Mabillon was his mentor.
(from E. Martène – U. Durand, Thesaurus novus anecdotorum, I. Paris III, p. 1, after oli indichi)
MARTÈNE, EDMOND - Incipit of the Altercatio inter Theophilum et Simonem, with an engraving depicting the two authors introducing a group of prelates into the library.
(Paris 1690: PL 66, 251-932). Other historical works followed, such as the Histoire de l'abbaye de Marmoutier (Paris 1692) and the Vie du sein, père à Claude Martin (Tours 1697); but the M.’s most important work is the De antiquis Ecclesiae ritibus libri IV, followed by the Tractatus de antiquo Ecclesiae disciplina (Lyon 1706). It is a valuable collection of various liturgical customs and texts, which has lost none of its importance even today. In the last years of his life he prepared a second edition of this monumental work in 4 volumes (Antwerp 1736–38). He gathered new material during the numerous journeys undertaken from 1709 through France and Belgium with his confrère Ursino Durand, visiting more than 100 cathedrals and chapters and 800 abbeys, and subsequently distributed it among the volumes of the Gallia Cristiana and the works: Thesaurus novus anecdotorum (5 vols., Paris 1717); Voyage littéraire de deux religieux bénédictins (2 vols., there 1717). A new journey to Germany provided him with further material for the Veterum scriptorum et monumentorum amplissima collectio (9 vols., there 1724–33). He also wrote vol. VI of the Annales Ordinis s. Benedicti (there 1739). The edifying lives of Maurist monks were later drawn from the manuscripts he left behind: Vies des justes (3 vols., there 1924–26, edited by B. Heurtebize) and the Histoire de la Congrégation de St Maur (5 vols., there 1928–31). These works and his extensive correspondence make M. an exceptional scholar, endowed with a great capacity for work and a refined critical intuition.