Marc Lescarbot

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Marc Lescarbot (* around 1570 in Vervins in Thiérache ; † 1642 in Presles-et-Boves ) was a northern French lawyer, traveler and author. His most important work is a history of New France , the Histoire de la Nouvelle-France , first published in 1609. It was published three times, translated twice into English and once into German. Henry P. Biggar called him the "French Hakluyt" (after the English geographer Richard Hakluyt ). His contemporary historical and ethnological observations and records are particularly important, especially the chants of the Indians on the east coast of North America.

life and work

Origin, legal career, translations

Marc Lescarbot was born on the border between France and the Spanish Netherlands , east of Soissons . His family probably came from Guise in Picardy , but he himself reports that his ancestors came from Saint-Pol-de-Léon in Brittany .

First he attended the college in Vervins, then in Laon , where he was sponsored by Bishop Valentin Duglas (also Douglas), who held this office from 1581 to 1598. So Lescarbot was able to go to Paris on a scholarship . There he received a classical education, mainly learning Latin , Greek and Hebrew . There was also a broad knowledge of ancient and modern literature. He then studied canonical and civil law, a course that he completed in 1598 as a baccalaureus .

In the negotiations leading up to the Treaty of Vervins between Spain and France, which was concluded on May 2, 1598, he took on a minor role. But he made a Latin speech when negotiations stalled. After the peace treaty he published peace poems and an inscription. In 1599 he was brought to the Paris Parliament as a lawyer. He also translated three Latin works into French. The result: Discours de l'origine des Russiens , the Discours véritable de la réunion des églises by Cardinal Cesare Baronio and the Guide des curés by Karl Borromäus . Although he dedicated the latter to the new bishop of Laon, Godefroy de Billy , he did not publish it until 1613, a year after his death.

In Paris, Lescarbot maintained contacts with Frédéric and Claude Morel , his first printers, and with the poet Guillaume Colletet . He dealt with medicine and translated a pamphlet by Dr. François Citois with the title Histoire merveilleuse de l'abstinence triennale d'une fille de Confolens (1602). However, he maintained contacts not only in Paris, but also in his home country.

Journey to French North America (1606–1607), his main work (1609)

Map from Scarbot's Histoire de la Nouvelle France contenant les navigations, découvertes, & habitations faites pare les François és Indes Occidentales & Nouvelle-France ... avec les tables & figures d'icelle , Jean Millot, Paris 1609, after p. 224 ( Digitized )

A defeat due to the corruption of a judge caused him to distance himself from his profession at times. So when he received the proposal from one of his clients, Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt, who was associated with Sieur Du Gua de Monts' company, to travel to Acadia on the east coast of North America, he gladly accepted the offer. He wrote an Adieu à la France and set sail from La Rochelle on May 13, 1606. He reached Port Royal in July and spent the rest of the year there, starting in the spring of 1607 on a trip to the Saint John River and Île Sainte-Croix . But in the summer, Mont's permission to establish a colony was revoked, so that the entire colony had to return to France.

On the way, Lescarbot wrote an epic poem called La défaite des sauvages armouchiquois . Finally, he attempted to write an extensive history of the French attempts at colonization in America, the Histoire de la Nouvelle-France . The first edition appeared in Paris in 1609 by Jean Millot . The general reports about the French in the New World are less of high source value than his statements about Mont's company in Acadia, where he met the survivors of the short-lived settlement attempt at Sainte-Croix, but also participants and organizers of earlier trips, such as François Gravé Du Pont , de Monts himself, and Samuel de Champlain ; he had also got to know the region intensively during his one-year stay.

1611–12 and 1617–18 there were two further editions of his Histoire , then La conversion des sauvages was published (1610) and the Relation derrière (1612). In it he described the re-establishment of the colony by Jean de Poutrincourt , whose disputes and those of his son Charles de Biencourt with their opponents, the Jesuits Pierre Biard (1567-1622), Énemond Massé (1575-1646) and Du Thet (1575-1613) , finally about the fall of the colony by the Englishman Samuel Argall . In these events, which he had never seen himself, he followed Poutrincourt, Biencourt, Imbert and other eyewitnesses.

Lescarbot's last part of the Histoire , which he dedicated entirely to the indigenous people, in whom he was particularly interested, is particularly important. He often visited chiefs and warriors of the Souriquois ( Mi'kmaq ), described their customs, noted their utterances, and wrote down their chants. In many ways he thought they were more civil and virtuous than the Europeans, but regretted them for their ignorance of the things of wine and love.

In the colony he saw a field of activity for enterprising spirits, a trading opportunity, a social gain, and an opportunity for the motherland to expand its influence. He favored trade monopolies to compensate for the costs of colonization, because in his eyes free trade led to anarchy and did not produce anything lasting.

In all editions, the Histoire contained a short collection of poems under the title Les muses de la Nouvelle-France , which were also published independently. Only his Théâtre de Neptune , which forms part of the Muses , and in which he allegorically describes the return of Poutrincourt's Port-Royal, was of linguistic significance, as Tritons and Indians sing about the fame of the colony founder and the king in French, Gascon and in Souriquois. This performance was arguably the first of its kind in North America.

Diplomatic services in Switzerland

He went to Switzerland as secretary to Pierre de Castille , the son-in-law and envoy of the superintendent for finances Pierre Jeannin . He visited Switzerland and parts of Germany and designed a Tableau de la Suisse , a half descriptive, half historical work in poetry and prose (1618). He received 300 livres from the king for this .

Marriage (1619), trials, last plans to emigrate

On September 3, 1619, in the church of St-Germain-l'Auxerrois in Paris, he married Françoise de Valpergue, a young noble widow who had been ruined by fraudsters. He managed to win back her home in Presles in court, plus an estate, but her constant preoccupation with these proceedings made her life bitter.

In 1629 he tried to get Cardinal Richelieu's attention by describing the siege of La Rochelle . He cultivated his relations with Charles de Biencourt and Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour and his relations with the New World as best he could. The passenger list of a supply ship for La Tour from 1633 names a Marc Lescarbot, but it was probably his nephew of the same name. In each case he corresponded with Isaac de Razilly ; a letter from the governor dated August 16, 1634 has been preserved. In it, he gave details of the founding of La Hève and asked Lescarbot to move to Acadia with his wife. But he spent the last years of his life in Presles-et-Boves, where he died without children in 1642.

From his numerous writings, which were often published anonymously, we know a Traité de la polygamie , but his Traité de la guerre has been lost. In addition, he was a musician, calligrapher , and technical draftsman. He was also the first to record Indian songs.

literature

Web links

Commons : Marc Lescarbot  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Henry P. Biggar: The French Hakluyt; Marc Lescarbot of Vervins. In: The American Historical Review 6, 1901, pp. 670-692 ( online ).
  2. ^ Adieu à la France by Marc Lescarbot , Gutenberg project.
  3. ↑ La Defaite des Sauvages Armouchiquois par le Sagamos Membertou et ses alliez , Gutenberg project.
  4. ^ Histoire de la Nouvelle-France by Marc Lescarbot , Project Gutenberg.
  5. ^ Conversion des Sauvages qui ont esté baptizés en la Nouvelle France, cette , Project Gutenberg.
  6. ^ Les Muses de la Nouvelle France by Marc Lescarbot , Gutenberg project.
  7. ^ Thomas Pfeiffer: Marc Lescarbot. Pioneer de la Nouvelle-France. L'Harmattan, Paris 2012, p. 13.
personal data
SURNAME Lescarbot, Marc
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French lawyer and traveler, writer of a history of New France
DATE OF BIRTH around 1570
PLACE OF BIRTH Vervins
DATE OF DEATH 1642
Place of death Presles-et-Boves