Jean-Baptiste Gaspard d'Ansse de Villoison

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D'Ansse de Villoison
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Jean-Baptiste Gaspard d'Ansse de Villoison (born March 5, 1750 in Corbeil-Essonnes , † April 28, 1805 in Paris ) was a French classical philologist , especially a Graecist , and professor of modern Greek at the Collège de France , Paris. He is best known for his discovery and edition of Codex Venetus A of Homer's Iliad .

life and work

D'Ansse de Villoison was admitted to the Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres as early as 1772, at the age of 22 . In 1773 he published the Homer Lexicon of Apollonios Sophistes from a manuscript in the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés , in 1778 an edition of the bucolic novel Daphnis and Chloe des Longos , in 1781 from manuscripts in Paris and Venice the Anecdota Graeca , which among others contains the mythological lexicon Ionia ("violet garden ", from Greek τὸ ἰόν "violet", Latin : violarium ) attributed to the empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa and various fragments of the neo-Platonists Iamblich and Porphyrios , the Prokop of Gaza , the Chorikios and various Greek grammarians.

From 1781 to 1784 he worked for three years at the expense of the French government in the Bibliotheca Marciana in Venice. There he discovered the Codex Venetus A, a manuscript of the Iliad from the 10th century with numerous scholias and marginalia . Following his stay in Venice, he went to Weimar at the invitation of Duke Karl August von Sachsen- Weimar , where he did research in the palace library.

From 1784 to 1786 he then went on a trip to Greece and the Levant with the French diplomat Choiseul-Gouffier . He visited Constantinople , Smyrna and various Aegean islands and then spent a few weeks in the monasteries on Mount Athos . The hopes associated with this trip for the discovery of further valuable manuscripts were not fulfilled, however, and so he returned to Paris in 1786. There he published the Codex Venetus A in 1788 and caused a sensation in the learned world. In addition, D'Ansse de Villoison is rediscovering Tsakonian , a Greek dialect which, like all other modern Greek dialects, did not develop from the Hellenistic Koine , but from the ancient Doric .

During the French Revolution he lived in Orléans and worked there in the library of the Valois brothers (Valesius). When things were settled again, he returned to Paris. There he gave provisional courses at the École spéciale des langues orientales from 1800, that is, before the chair for Modern Greek was officially established. Aware of his numerous merits - he was also able to speak Hebrew , Syriac and Arabic - he sought, not least from Napoleon Bonaparte himself, a Chaire de Grec Moderne ("Chair for Modern Greek") at the Collège de France , which was granted to him in 1804. However, he could not make use of this privilege as he died barely a year later.

The Bibliothèque Royale at the time and now the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris stores materials for a comprehensive work on ancient and modern Greece that D'Ansse de Villoison had planned.

Fonts

  • Apollonii Sophistae lexicon graecum Iliadis et Odysseae. Primus ex codice manuscripto Sangermanensi in lucem vindicavit et versionem latinam adjecit Johannes Baptista Casparus d'Ansse de Villoison. Accedit huc usque inedita Philemonis grammatici fragmenta, tertii Iliadis libri prosaica metaphrasis graeca cum notulis et variantibus lectionibus, metaphrasisque et tertii Iliadis libri (2 volumes, 1773).
  • Anecdota graeca e regia parisiensi & e veneta S. Marci bibliothecis deprompta (2 volumes, 1781).
  • Epistolae Vinarienses (1783).
  • Nova versio graeca Proverbiorum, Ecclesiastis, Cantici Canticorum, Ruthi, Threnorum, Danielis, et selectorum Pentateuchi locorum ex unico S. Marci bibliothecae codice Veneto nunc primum eruta et notulis illustrata a Johanne Baptista Caspare D'Ansse de Villoison (1784).
  • Homeri Ilias ad veteris codicis veneti fidem recensita. Scholia in eam antiquissima ex eodem codice aliisque, nunc primum edidit cum asteriscis, obeliscis aliisque signis criticis Joh. Baptista Caspar d'Ansse de Villoison (1788).
  • Renata Lavagnini (ed.): Villoison in Grecia. Note di viaggio (1784-1786) . Palermo: Istituto Siciliano di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici , 1974. Review: David Holton , in: The Classical Review (New Series) 27 (1977) 152-153.
  • Étienne Famerie (ed.): Jean-Baptiste Gaspard d'Ansse de Villoison, De l'Hellade à la Grèce: voyage en Grèce et au Levant (1784–1786) . G. Olms, Hildesheim, New York, 2006 ( Classical Studies and Studies , Vol. 40), ISBN 3-487-13144-7 .

literature

  • Notice historique sur l'École Spéciale des Langues Orientales Vivantes. Ernest Leroux, Paris 1883, p. 19, 57: Tableau des Professeurs (Villoison and Hase gave cours provisoires = cp before the official establishment of the chair), online (PDF; 8.2 MB)
  • Louis Bazin: L'École des Langues orientales et l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1795–1995), in: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 139, No. 4, 1995, pp. 983-996, there 987, 988, 992, online
  • Bon-Joseph Dacier: Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de Villoison . Imprimerie Impériale, Paris 1806, online
  • Charles Joret : D'Ansse de Villoison et l'hellénisme en France pendant le dernier tiers du XVIIIe siècle. Paris, H. Champion, 1910, online (PDF)
  • Charles Joret: Une lettre d'Ansse de Villoison au premier consul, in: Journal des savants 11, No. 7, 1913, pp. 320-321, online . - (Letter to Napoleon Bonaparte requesting the establishment of a chair in Modern Greek at the Collège de France)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ansse de Villoison, Jean-Baptiste Gaspard d '
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Graecist and Neo-Greekist
DATE OF BIRTH March 5, 1750
PLACE OF BIRTH Corbeil-Essonnes
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1805
Place of death Paris