ABSTRACT
This chapter draws from a body of references to works or authors contained in the seven volumes of Olivier Messiaen's theoretical magnum opus, the Traite, with the intention of reconstructing not the definitive version of Messiaen's library, but rather, an impression of that collection's essence. In late nineteenth-century France, a movement developed that became known as the 'Christian Intellectual Renaissance'. According to historian Herve Serry, this movement encompassed 'all of the debates, public entreaties, essays, novels and poetry up until the early 1930s written by authors identifying themselves as Catholic and intended as specifically literary and more generally intellectual'. The reconstitution of Messiaen's virtual library using his litany of references to specific authors in his Traité, throws into relief – in the context of his literary references – a considerable number of texts from the French Catholic Literary circles of the early twentieth century.
