Jane Frances Fremiot de Chantal: 15 botanical-biographical emblems. Very rare.
[St. Jane Frances de Chantal] / [Visitandines] / Franz Xaver Jungwierth / Johann Michael Söckler / Ignaz Schilling. Tagzeiten von der heligen Mutter Johanna Francisca Fremiot von Chantal. München, gedruckt in der Vötterischen Hof- und Landschaftsbuchdruckerey, 1768. 8vo [15.9 x 9.8 cm], 56 pp., with [1] large folding etching and 14 full-page etchings, with woodcut title device and tail-pieces. Bound in later card decorated with foliate motif, spine gold-stamped, marbled edges. Minor edge wear to spine and boards. Tiny worm track on inner margin of first quire not affecting text or image, plates trimmed inside the platemark, with address of smaller plate 1 affected (only the first two smaller plates are meant to include the address).
Very rare (1 complete copy worldwide: U. Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) volume of prayers, litanies and spiritual exercises devoted to Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot de Chantal (1572-1641), founder of the Sisters of the Order of the Visitation (i.e., the Visitandines or Salesian Sisters). The work is illustrated with a suite of 15 exquisite rocaille etchings (1 of which is large and folding) produced on the occasion of her canonization in 1767.’
The text of the book nowhere refers to these prints, and it is clear that the book was published as a vehicle for the suite of etchings. The etchings (unbound and with wide margins) are known elsewhere, in 2 copies (Johns Hopkins and the Diözesanbibliothek des Erzbistums München und Freising).
The prints were executed and published in Munich by Ignaz Schilling (1702-1773) and Johann Michael Söckler, (1744-1781). They are a record of the monumental paintings made by Schilling for the Visitation convent in Munich.
The large, folding architectural-emblematic etching establishes the theme of the series, namely the botanical-symbolic trajectory of Jeanne-Françoise de Chantal’s life, which culminates in her being crowned with a flowery wreath upon her saintly ascent to heaven. This large sheet carries the title Ehrenkranz Aus den herrlichen Tugenden der H. Ioannae Franciscae Fremiot von Chantal Stifterin des Ordens von der Heimsuchung Mariae geflochten, und derselben bey dem feyrlichen Fest ihrer Heiligsprechung verehret (“Wreath of Honor Woven from the Glorious Virtues of St. to Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot de Chantal, Foundress of the Order of the Visitation of Mary, and Presented to Her on the Solemn Feast of Her Canonization”).
Each of the smaller 14 etchings includes (1) a scene from the saint’s life, (2) a botanical emblem relating to that scene, and (3) a verse explanation. They chart Jane’s youthful rejection of worldly matters, her turn to the convent, her tutelage by François de Sales (1567-1622), incidents from convent life, her attack by demons, and her death. The botanical emblems treat individual flowers, the cultivation of a garden, etc., and conclude, fascinatingly, with the scene of a pharmacy in which prepared plants are kept in jars for healing worldly ailments.
OCLC, KVK and the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek locate a complete copy of the Tagzeiten von der heligen Mutter Johanna Francisca Fremiot von Chantal at the Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and an incomplete copy at the Bischöfliche Zentralbibliothek Regensburg (without the 14 smaller plates). Suites of the 15 unbound etchings are located at Johns Hopkins and the Diözesanbibliothek des Erzbistums München und Freising.
*W. Harms and G Heß, eds., Sinn Bilder Welten: Emblematische Medien in der Frühen Neuzeit, p. 32, no. 36; B. Haupt, ed., Festschrift für Herbert Kolb zu seinem 65. Geburtstag, p. 379, no. 67.