Daniel de Superville (the elder)

Daniel de Superville (the Elder), frontispiece to the English edition of his Sermons (1816)

Daniel de Superville (the elder), also Daniel de Superville Père ( the father ) (* August 1657 in Saumur ; † June 9, 1728 in Rotterdam ) was a French Reformed theologian and author who had to flee to the Netherlands, where he worked as a pastor of the Walloon Church in Rotterdam.

Life

Daniel de Superville came from a Huguenot academic family who originally came from Béarn . His grandfather Jean and his father Jacques were both doctors. The father died in France, the mother Marthe, b. Pilet (* 1663 in Nantes ), fled to the Netherlands after the Edict of Nantes was repealed by the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1686, where she died in 1719.

After graduating from school in his hometown, he studied philosophy and theology in Geneva from 1677 until the death of his father in 1679 . In 1683 he was called to the Reformed pastor in Loudun , but had to flee in 1685. He came with his wife Elisabeth, geb. de Monnery first to Maastricht . On January 13, 1686 he became vicar and later pastor in Rotterdam. He built up the Walloon community in Rotterdam and turned down several calls, for example to London, Berlin and Hamburg.

Superville worked for the French refugees in a wide variety of areas. He stood up for the Protestants who stayed behind in France, who were often sentenced to galley sentences, and tried to organize their ransom. During the negotiations for the Peace of Utrecht , he tried to find favorable clauses for Protestants in France.

In poor health, he asked for and received his retirement with a pension from the city of Rotterdam on January 30, 1724.

Superville's sermons were famous and appeared several times in print, as were his reflections on the Last Supper, which Johann Gottfried Lessing translated into German in 1728.

family

He was married twice. In 1683 he married Elisabeth de Monnery in France. He had two children with her. She died shortly after arriving in Rotterdam in 1686. Both children also died before Daniel de Superville married Catherine van Armeiden in 1694. He had seven children with her, of whom three sons and two daughters survived. On July 18, 1709 they became citizens of the Dutch Republic.

The children were:

• Catharine (baptized April 18, 1696)
• Emilie (October 30, 1698)
• Daniel (June 13th 1700)
• Jean (September 1, 1702)
• Christine Elisabeth (June 8, 1704)
• Pierre Jacques (September 21, 1708)

His son Daniel de Superville (the younger) succeeded him as pastor of the Walloon congregation in Rotterdam.

His daughter Emilie married Pierre Humbert, a merchant from Geneva who had settled in Amsterdam in 1706 as a bookseller and publisher . Her son Jean Humbert de Superville (1734–1794) was a portrait painter. His son Jean Emile Humbert (1771–1839) became a Dutch lieutenant colonel and is considered the modern discoverer of Carthage; his son David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville was an artist and art historian ( Essai sur les signes inconditionnels dans l'art ).

Daniel de Superville's nephew, the son of his brother Jacques de Superville, a businessman in Rotterdam, who was also called Daniel de Superville , became a doctor and founding chancellor of the University of Erlangen .

Works

• Sermons on various textes de l'Écriture sainte.

German edition:

English edition: Sermons . Trans. John Allen. London: Printed for Burton and Briggs; sold also by Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy 1816

• Éléments du christianisme ou abregé des veritez et des devoirs de la réligion chrétienne, à l'usage des plus petits enfans.
• Le vrai Communiant or Traité de la sainte Cène. Rotterdam 1718 (often wrongly attributed to his son.)

German edition (a): Ingenious reflections on the worthy use of the Holy Communion, and the true means of enjoying it in a very salutary way / Formerly in French by a famous teacher [i. e. Daniel de Superville], but Nunmehro, for the sake of his excellence, diligently translated it into German, and promoted for printing by M. Johann Gottfried Leßing, Archi-Diacono in Camentz. Budißin: Richter 1728 ( digitized copy of the Göttingen University Library)

German edition (b): The righteous Commvnicant or Thorough instruction of the Holy Communion And how one can make oneself worthy and skilful to use it / Written in French by Mr. Daniel the Svperville preacher at the Walloon community in Rotterdam Anjetzo but his excellence half translated into German for all devout communicants for edifying use. 2 volumes, Eisenach and Naumburg: Michael Gottlieb Grießbach 1734

literature

• Paul Fonbrune-Berbinau: Daniel de Superville (1657–1728): étude historique. Chambéry: Ménard 1884
• L. Knappert: Superville (Daniel de) (1). In: Philip Christiaan Molhuysen, Petrus Johannes Blok et al. (Ed.): Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek , Volume 5, pp. 839–841 ( full text )

Web links

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