Achery, Jean Luc

ACHERY, ɑ̄´´shê´´rî´, JEAN LUC d’ (Dom Luc d’Achery; Lat. Dacherius): Benedictine; b. at St. Quentin (80 m. n.e. of Paris), Picardy, 1609; d. in Paris Apr. 29, 1685. He entered the Benedictine order while still very young, and in 1632 joined the congregation of St. Maur at Vendôme. He was of weak constitution and suffered much physically, which led his superiors to send him to Paris. There he became librarian of St. Germain-des-Prés, and for forty-five years lived solely for his books and scholarly work. He took especial delight in searching out unknown books and bringing unprinted manuscripts to publication, and was ever ready to help others from his vast store of learning. His chief work was the Spicilegium veterum aliquot scriptorum qui in Galliæ bibliothecis, maxime Benedictinorum, latuerant (13 vols., Paris, 1655-77; 2d ed., by De la Barre, with comparison of later-found manuscripts by Baluze and Martène, 3 vols., 1723, better arranged but less correct). He edited the first edition of the Epistle of Barnabas (1645), the life and works of Lanfranc (1648), the works of Guibert of Nogent (1651), and the Regula solitariorum of a certain priest Grimlaic (1656); he compiled a catalogue of ascetic writings (1648); and he gathered the material for the Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti, which was published by his scholar and assistant, Mabillon (9 vols., 1668-1701), and for which the latter has usually received the credit.

(C. Pfender.)

Bibliography: L. E. Dupin, Bibliotheque des auteurs ecclésiastiques, xviii. 1445, Amsterdam ed.; Tassin, Histoire littéraire de la congrégation de St. Maur, pp. 103 sqq., Brussels, 1770.