Charles d'Orléans de Rothelin

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Charles d'Orléans de Rothelin

Charles d'Orléans de Rothelin called l'Abbé de Rothelin (born August 5, 1691 in Paris ; † July 17, 1744 ibid) was a French clergyman , theologian , numismatist and scholar and since 1728 a member of the Académie française .

family

Charles came from the Orléans-Rothelin family , an illegitimate branch line of the House of Orléans-Longueville , and in the female line was a descendant of Margrave Philipp von Hachberg-Sausenberg . One of his ancestors was Jean de Dunois , the comrade in arms of Joan of Arc . He was the sixth and youngest child of Henri II von Orléans-Rothelin († 1691) and Gabrielle Eléonore de Montault de Navailles († 1698).

Life

Rothelin did not know his father, who died two months after his birth in the battle of Leuze , and also lost his mother in childhood. Since his grandparents died before he was nine years old, his older sister Suzanne de Clère (1677–1751) took care of his upbringing. He attended the Collège d'Harcourt and received his doctorate in theology in 1716 .

In 1717 his aunt, the Duchess of Elbeuf Françoise de Montault (1653–1717), died childless and left a notable legacy, some of which went to Rothelin.

As a protégé of Cardinal de Polignac , he accompanied him on his trip to Rome in 1723 and was also in the vicinity of the cardinal, who took part in the conclave , which Pope Benedict XIII. chose.

In 1726 he was appointed abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Notre-Dame de Cormeilles . This benefice brought him 12,000 livres a year and enabled him to study. When it was taken over, the abbey was in poor condition and had only two monks, but good income from its English provosts. Until his death the convent grew again to 11 members.

In 1728 he was elected a member of the Académie française, where he occupied the 11th seat until his death . In 1733 he was elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres as membre honoraire . He also worked on the third edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française .

Even Voltaire estimated Rothelin and asked him in 1733 before the release in France for an opinion on his Lettres philosophiques . Rothelin was of the opinion that Voltaire's work would not pass the royal censorship without the defusing of some passages. In fact, the work was then banned and an arrest warrant was issued against Voltaire. Voltaire also dedicated a verse to Rothelin.

Bookplate of l'Abbé de Rothelin with his coat of arms

Charles was considered one of the most learned bibliophiles of his time. The catalog of his library compiled after his death in 1746 comprised 5036 titles, whereby one number often stands for works in several volumes. His collection attracted attention not only because of the titles available, but also because of the exquisite furnishings of the books. Rothelin had his books bound by the best bookbinders in Paris and also had his ex-libris with his coat of arms inserted. This coat of arms also contains the coats of arms of the Margraves of Hachberg-Sausenberg and the Counts of Neuchâtel, with which Rothelin ties in with the ancestor of the family, Jeanne de Hochberg. When his library was auctioned in March 1747, the book collection was torn apart - it brought in 83,000 livres.

The anti-Lucretius

Cardinal de Polignac left behind the manuscript of a refutation of Lucretius in metrical verse, which he entrusted to Rothelin on his deathbed in 1741 for revision and later publication. However, Rothelin fell ill himself and died in 1744 without having fully completed the work. Charles LeBeau made the work ready for printing and had it published in Paris in 1747 ( "Anti-Lucretius sive De Deo et Natura" - Anti-Lucretius or About God and Nature). Within 20 years, 15 editions of the Latin version and a number of translations into French, Italian, English and German have been published.

The coin cabinet

Charles owned an extensive coin cabinet with numerous Roman coins. Shortly before his death, he gave Charles LeBeau around 9,000 bronze coins. The remainder of the collection was bought by the King of Spain Ferdinand VI from his estate . for 87,000 livres. Today it is in the Escorial with 136 gold and 5293 silver coins .

Works

literature

Web links

Commons : Charles d'Orléans de Rothelin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References, notes and footnotes

  1. ↑ on this college in general see Collège d'Harcourt in the French wikipedia
  2. ↑ on the abbey in general see the article in the French Wikipedia Abbaye Notre-Dame de Cormeilles
  3. ↑ s. Stramberg p. 400
  4. ↑ s. Academy homepage
  5. ↑ JB Shank: The Newton Wars and the Beginning of the French Enlightenment , Chicago and London 2008, p. 302 online in the Google Book Search - English
  6. ↑ "Cher Rothelin, vous fûtes du voyage,
    Vous que le goût ne cesse d'inspirer,
    Vous dont l'esprit si délicat, si sage,
    Vous dont l'exemple a daigné me montrer
    Par quels chemins on peut sans s'égarer
    Chercher ce goût, ce dieu que dans cet age
    Maints beaux-esprits font gloire d'ignorer. »
    ( Adrien-Jean-Quentin Beuchot: Oeuvres de Voltaire: Tome XII., Poésies, Tome I., Paris 1883, p. 327 )
    "Dear Rothelin, you have made the journey (to the temple du goût , about which the book is about) You who are constantly inspired by good taste, you, whose picky and wise spirit, whose example showed me the ways in which one can seek that taste, that God, without going astray, that so many beautiful spirits boast of ignoring at this time . "
  7. ^ G. Martin: Catalog des livres de feu M. l'abbé d'Orleans de Rothelin , Paris 1746 online in the Internet Archive
  8. ↑ see Gustav Adolf Erich Bogeng : The great bibliophiles. History of book collectors and their collections, Volume I, Seemann, Leipzig 1922, p. 142 pdf 9.76 MB
  9. ↑ on the person in general see the article in the French Wikipedia Charles Le Beau
  10. ↑ see Reinhold F. Glei: About God and the World. Cardinal Melchior de Polignac's Latin didactic poem Anti-Lucretius on www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de; accessed on September 15, 2015
  11. ↑ an INVENTARIO GENERAL DE MANUSCRITOS DÉLA BIBLIOTECA NACIONAL from 1988 shows under No. 8240 '"Etat des medailles d'or et d'argent du Cabinet de Mr. l'Abbé de Rothelin" (136 de oro y 5293 de plata). pdf 12.29 MB, Spanish ; Gustave Brunet, Jacques-Paul Migne: Dictionnaire de Bibliologie Catholique: présentant un exposé des principaux ... , column 526-527 in the Internet Archive
personal data
SURNAME Orléans de Rothelin, Charles d '
ALTERNATIVE NAMES l'Abbé de Rothelin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French theologian and scholar
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1691
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH July 17, 1744
Place of death Paris