Hardback: "In these ten books, it will be possible to learn enough of the truth about the Carmelites so as to devoutly study the beginning, progress and growth of their Order, the admirable qualities of its founders and earliest members, the eremitical monastic way of life and its purpose, and the blessed reward gained by those who live it worthily."
In compiling The Ten Books on the Way of Life and Great Deeds of the Carmelites in the late fourteenth century, Felip Ribot, a friar from Catalonia, constructed a legendary history of his religious order that would dominate its spirituality for centuries.
The text, better known under the title The Book of the First Monks, was widely read across medieval Europe. It begins with the Carmelites' supposed foundation in the Holy Land by the Old Testament prophet Elijah, and traces the Order's adoption of Christianity and its international expansion.
Highlighting the Carmelites' devotion to the Mother of God, their attentiveness to the Bible, and the Rule of Life by which they were guided, Ribot attempts to show his Order's antiquity, its privileged place within the Christian Church, and even its unique role in the history of salvation.
Held up as a spiritual masterpiece by the likes of Saint Teresa of Jesus (of Ávila), and derided as a work of fantasy by rival religious orders, The Ten Books has attracted a surge of revived interest in recent years from historians and theologians, Carmelites and non-believers, scholars and the wider public.
With an introduction, scholarly notes, illustrations and comprehensive index, this translation, now in its second edition, will be valuable not only to those engaged in Carmelite studies, but all those who wish to explore the fascinating spiritual world evoked in Felip Ribot's masterpiece.
The Ten Books on the Way of Life and Great Deeds Volume 1 is a medieval history of the Carmelites written around 1385 by Felip Ribot OCarm; edited and translated by Richard Copsey OCarm and published in 2005 (second edition, 2007).
About the editor/translator: Richard Copsey OCarm is a Carmelite friar and renowned historian, whose translation of The Ten Books makes this key text of western spirituality available in modern English to the general public for the first time.
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