Maillard. Confession, c. 1492

OLIVIER MAILLARD (c. 1430–1502).
La confession frere Olivier Maillard.
[Paris: Pierre Le Rouge, c. 1492]. (07052)

Bridwell Library holds the only recorded copy of this edition of an early vernacular text for private devotion composed by Olivier Maillard, one of the most popular preachers in fifteenth-century France. Commissioned by the citizens of Poitiers, the Confession presents a mixture of prose and verse expositions on each of the Ten Commandments. The work begins by listing the ten barriers to salvation and then offers a pathway to repentance through personal reflection upon the Decalogue. A short treatise on mortal sins follows, and the book concludes with a rendering of the Ten Commandments in verse. Purchased in 2009, this is the earliest French devotional text held by Bridwell Library.