WILMART, HENRI-MARIE-ANDRÉ

WILMART, Henri-Marie-André. Benedictine scholar, born in Orléans on 28 January 1876, died in Paris on 21 April 1941.

He completed his classical studies in Paris (1893–95), attending the École des Hautes Études, the Institut Catholique, and the Sorbonne; he began ecclesiastical studies with the Sulpicians (1897–99) and in September 1899 entered the abbey of Solesmes, from which he was expelled in September 1901, just months after his religious profession (24 June), following the suppression of religious orders. Taking refuge on the Isle of Wight, he was ordained priest on 24 June 1906 and soon after assigned to the abbey of St Michael’s, Farnborough, to which he remained affiliated. In late 1928 he was called to the Vatican Library to catalogue the Latin manuscripts in the Queen’s collection, a task he undertook for eleven years, bringing to it his vast and sure erudition. Three great masters decisively influenced the early phase of his scholarly career, though his later work developed a distinctly personal character: Monsignor P. BATIFFOL, PIERRE (v.), who not only guided him toward the priesthood but introduced him to the study of early Christian antiquity; L. TRAUBE, LUDWIG (v.), who taught him to view palaeography as a historical discipline; and E. BISHOP, EDMUND (v.), who directed him toward liturgical studies, understood as part of ecclesiastical literature.

Wilmart, a profound connoisseur of the art of deciphering the secrets of manuscripts, systematically examined them during numerous scholarly travels, focusing on those pertinent to his research. It is therefore unsurprising that every work he produced is regarded as a primary contribution. A palaeographer and philologist of rare skill, he was meticulous in his editions of ancient and medieval texts, which stand as models. His publications, aside from unpublished materials, number around 380 in a preliminary count, to which over eighty reviews must be added. He was a frequent contributor to many journals, especially the Revue Bénédictine, in which he published 150 articles. A selection of his scattered studies was gathered in the volume *Auteurs spirituels et textes dévots du moyen âge latin* (Paris 1932). Below is a brief overview of some of his principal contributions to patristics, liturgy, and medieval literature (the year of publication and the sequential number in the bibliography compiled by J. Bignami Odier are given in parentheses):

1. **Patristics**: Gregory of Elvira (1906, 1909, 1912, nos. 2, 10, 28, 32), to whom he attributed the *Tractatus Origenis* published by Batiffol with his collaboration (1900, no. 1); Phoebadius of Agen (1908, no. 7); St Hilary of Poitiers (from 1907 to 1938, 7 studies); St Augustine (from 1912 to 1938, over 20 studies, including fundamental work on the manuscript tradition of the Saint’s works, nos. 194, 205, 233, and the edition of Possidius’s *Indiculus*, no. 232).

2. **Liturgy**: The Bobbio Sacramentary (from 1909 to 1924, 5 studies); the Psalter of Count Evrard (1911, no. 26); the Masses of Mone (1911, no. 27); the liturgical manuscripts of Corbie (1913, no. 36); the Comes of Murbach (1913, no. 37); the letters of the pseudo-Germanus of Paris on Gallican liturgy (1924, no. 125); Alcuin’s Lectionary (1937, no. 322); the collects of the Psalters (1949, no. 365); and the pamphlet by E. Bishop, *Le Génie du rit roman*, French edition enriched with numerous notes, which Wilmart held in high regard, calling it the substance of his creed as a historian of liturgy (1919, 1920, nos. 54, 55).

3. **Medieval literature**: St Anselm (from 1923 to 1937, about twenty studies); John of Fécamp (from 1926 to 1937, 6 studies); Guigo I the Carthusian (from 1924 to 1936, 4 studies and the edition of the *Meditations*, no. 311); Hildebert of Lavardin (from 1935 to 1939, 4 studies); John, abbot of Santa Maria in Trastevere (1938, no. 332); the edition of the *Precum libelli* of the Carolingian period (1940, no. 357); the edition of the *Jubilus* on the name of Jesus (1943, no. 360).

4. **Methodology and manuscript description**: The article on Delisle in *DACL* (1916, no. 46); the review of V. Leroquais’s *Sacramentaires et Missels...* (1925, no. 156); the catalogue of 500 Latin manuscripts in the Regina collection (1937, 1945, nos. 321, 362), along with the *Analecta Reginensia* (1933, no. 267).

Wilmart was always generous with advice and assistance to those who pursued their studies with serious intent; suffice it to recall his magnanimous gesture toward Fr G. M. Hanssens, SJ, the editor of the liturgical works of Amalarius (cf. *Amalarii Episcopi opera lit. omnia*, I, Vatican City 1948, p. 7).