Claude Lancelot

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Claude Lancelot (* around 1615 in Paris , † April 15, 1695 in Quimperlé ) was a Jansenist monk and linguist .

Live and act

Pupil of Saint-Cyran

Lancelot entered the St-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet seminary, founded by Adrien Bourdoise (1584-1655) in 1612 at the age of 13 against the wishes of his parents, on October 31, 1627 , immediately received the tonsure and from March 5, 1628 wore the Cassock . He studied there for 10 years. In 1637 he met Jean Duvergier de Hauranne , known as Saint-Cyran, and under his influence joined the "Solitaires" (hermits) of Port Royal des Champs from January 20, 1638 , at their educational institute, alternately in Port Royal des Champs and in Port Royal de Paris, he taught. The arrest of Saint-Cyran led to the dissolution of the Solitaires on July 15, 1638. Lancelot was exiled to La Ferté-Milon , from where he went to the Saint-Cyran-en-Brenne monastery in Saint-Michel-en-Brenne ( Indre department ) in October 1639 to continue his educational activities there. In October 1640 he moved to Paris on instructions from Saint-Cyran. From the autumn of 1641 he was not only educator there, but also sexton of the Port-Royal monastery. He associated closely with Saint Cyran from his release, experienced his death on October 11, 1643 and organized his funeral.

Teacher at the Petites Écoles in Port Royal

Since the women's convent Port Royal de Paris was pushing back to Port Royal des Champs due to overcrowding, the Solitaires officially founded their educational institute called “Petites Écoles” in Paris in 1646, which officially existed there until March 12, 1660. It was the time when Lancelot, like Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole and in fruitful collaboration with them, created important works, above all the grammar of Port-Royal , published with Arnauld , which became famous three centuries later through Noam Chomsky . The period from 1646 to 1660 was also marked by further persecution by the authorities from 1653, so that Lancelot from Paris moved to the homestead called "Les Granges" (Grangien) near Port Royal des Champs, where in October 1655 the Sixteen-year-old Jean Racine became his pupil and remained there until October 1658, even after Lancelot, expelled from the Granges in March 1656, tutor of the later Duke of Chevreuse, Charles Honoré d'Albert (1646–1712), in the house of Louis Charles d ' Albert, Duke of Luynes , (1620–1690).

1661-1672

The period of the greatest persecution of Port Royal by state and church from 1661 to 1666 saw Lancelot as a sexton up close. From August 1667 to the end of 1667, accompanied by Louis-Henri de Loménie de Brienne (1635–1698), he made a trip to the holy bishop of Alet , Nicolas Pavilion (1597–1677), who took him through Auxerre , Vézelay , the Charterhouse of Apponay in Rémilly (today the Nièvre department ), Cluny , Lyon , Saint-Claude , Geneva , Annecy , the Grande Chartreuse , Grenoble , Pont-Saint-Esprit , the Charterhouse of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon and Limoux to Alet , where he spent a month stayed (nothing is known about the return trip from October 12th). From 1669 to 1672 Lancelot was the tutor of Louis Armand I de Bourbon, prince de Conti (* 1661) and François Louis de Bourbon, prince de Conti (* 1664).

The Cistercian monk

At the turn of the year 1672/1673 Lancelot went to the monastery of Saint-Cyran-en-Brenne. There he was ordained a subdeacon by Henri de Barillon, Bishop of Luçon . On June 6, 1673 he was dressed as a Cistercian . He made his profession on June 11, 1674. After the death of the Duchess of Longueville , to whom Port-Royal owed his temporary protection, there was renewed persecution in 1679, during the course of which Lancelot was banished from the monastery of Saint-Cyran by Lettre de cachet and transferred to the Benedictine monastery of Sainte-Croix ("Holy Cross" ) was sent to Quimperlé (Brittany). The local abbot Guillaume Charrier († 1717) was well disposed to him. In March 1689, when Jacob II of England visited the monastery , Lancelot was allowed to dine at the king's table. He died on April 15, 1695 (eight months after Antoine Arnauld and seven months before Pierre Nicole). His bones are lost.

Works (selection)

  • Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre la langue latine ( New Method of Learning Latin , 1644)
  • Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre la langue grecque ( New Method of Learning Greek , 1655)
  • Jardin des racines grecques ( Garden of Greek Roots , 1657)
  • Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre facilement et en peu de temps la langue espagnole ( New Method of Learning Spanish , 1660)
  • Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre facilement et en peu de temps la langue italienne ( New Method of Learning Italian , 1660)
  • with Antoine Arnauld : Grammar by Port-Royal ("Grammaire générale et raisonnée", 1660)
    • Grammaire générale et raisonnée ou La grammaire de Port-Royal , ed. by Herbert E. Brekle . 2 vols. Fromman, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1966 (facsimile of the 3rd edition, Paris 1676).
    • Grammaire générale et raisonnée . Olms, Hildesheim, New York 1973.
    • General and rational grammar. The Port-Royal grammar . De Gruyter Mouton, Berlin / Boston 1975, 2015.
  • Quatre Traitez de poésies, latine, francoise, Italienne et Espagnole . Paris 1663. Brighton 1969.
  • L'Art de Chanter ou Method Facile pour apprendre en fort peu de temps les vrays principes du Plein-Chant & de la Musique, & pour les mettre surement en pratique . André Pralard, Paris 1685. (today: plain-chant = Gregorian chant )
  • Dissertation on l'hémine de vin et sur la livre de pain de S. Benoist . 2nd Edition. Guillaume Desprez, Paris 1688
  • Mémoires touchant la vie de M. de Saint-Cyran , ed. by Denis Donetzkoff. Nolin, Paris 2003 ("Univers Port-Royal" series 4)

literature

  • Louis Cognet: Claude Lancelot. Solitaire de Port-Royal . Sulliver, Paris 1950 (main source for this article).
  • Thérèse Monthéard, "Quelques personnages illustres ...", in Chroniques de Port-Royal , n ° 54, 2004.
  • Noam Chomsky : Cartesian Linguistics. A Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought . Harper & Row, New York 1966.
    • Cartesian linguistics. A chapter in the history of rationalism. Tübingen 1971.
  • Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck: Narrative of a Tour to La Grande Chartreuse and Alet, by Dom. Claude Lancelot . London 1813.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lancelot, Claude
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Jansenist monk and linguist
DATE OF BIRTH around 1615
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1695
Place of death Quimperlé