Didier Diderot

Didier Diderot, painting by an unknown artist. Musée d'art et d'histoire de Langres

Didier Diderot (born September 14, 1685 in Langres ; † June 3, 1759 ibid) was a French craftsman and the father of the later encyclopedist , author, philosopher and enlightener Denis Diderot .

n ° 9 de la place Chambeau , today n ° 9 de la place dans le center ville de Langres , in the background on the right side the house of the Diderots

Didier Diderot's death certificate, acte de décès

Live and act

Didier Diderot came from dynasties of craft families from the episcopal city of Langres in the Haut Marne , today in the Champagne-Ardenne region. His father was Denis Diderot, senior (November 3, 1654 - March 26, 1726), a master craftsman , more cutlery champion , maître coutelier , and his mother was Nicole Beligné (30 October 1655 - August 1692). Both had been married to each other since June 20, 1679. She too came from a family of craftsmen, as her father François Beligné (1625–1697) was also a master cutler, her mother was Catherine Grassot. He took over the labeling of their products from the Beligné family, the Perle, la perle .

Didier (see also Desiderius von Langres ) had five brothers - of which Didier was the second eldest son - and one sister: the brothers Antoine Thomas (1682–1755), Claude (1687–1689), François (* 1688), Félix (* 1689 ) and Didier (* 1690) and the sister Catherine Diderot (* 1690).

Historical city map of Langres

View of Langres ( Champagne-Ardenne region

Didier Diderot married Angélique Vigneron on Tuesday, January 19, 1712 in Chassigny (October 12, 1677 - October 1, 1748). She was the thirteenth daughter of the tanner , tanneur , François Vigneron († 1679) and Jeanne Aramite Humblot († 1710) from Langres. Didier Diderot was close to the Jansenist movement in the Catholic Church . The couple had three sons and four daughters; the first son died one day after his birth on November 5, 1712, followed by Denis (October 5, 1713 - July 31, 1784) and Didier-Pierre (March 21, 1722 - November 17, 1787), a later canon of Langres , chanoine écrivain de Langres (see also Diocese of Langres ), the sisters were Denise (January 27, 1715 - March 26, 1797), Catherine (1716–1718), Catherine (1719 - October 25, 1735) and Angélique Diderot (3. April 1720-1749). Angélique Diderot joined the Ursuline Order.

Workshop of a cutler , coutelier . Illustration from the Encyclopédie of Didier Diderot's son Denis Diderot.

The family lived in the center of Langres around 1713, n ° 9 de la place Chambeau , today n ° 9 de la place dans le center ville de Langres , the square is now called Denis Diderots.

Didier Diderot was a specialist in the manufacture of medical-surgical cutting instruments, such as for scalpels and lancets (see forging , knife steel and Damascus steel ).

Relationship between Didier and Denis Diderot, father and son

Denis, Didier Diderot's eldest son, as well as his siblings received a good school education in the institutions shaped by the Jesuits .

The relationship with his father was quite ambivalent: In 1741 Denis Diderot met the lingerie seller Anne-Toinette Champion and intended to marry her. As usual, he wanted to ask his father's permission to do this and so he traveled to Langres in December 1742. However, his father Didier Diderot did not agree with his plans and, by virtue of his fatherly authority, had him detained in a ( Carmelite ) monastery near Troyes in January 1743 so that he could refrain from his plans. Denis Diderot fled to Paris. It was not until Wednesday, November 6, 1743, that he secretly married Anne-Toinette Champion.

Nevertheless, a reconciliation should come about. There is evidence that Anne-Toinette Diderot met her father-in-law and his family in Langres in 1752, she was warmly welcomed and introduced to many relatives and friends.

Didier Diderot's death

Didier Diderot made a trip to the spa baths in Bourbonne-les-Bains , about fifty kilometers from Langres , at the end of May 1759 . The doctor Hugues Alexis Juvet (1714–1789) soon sent him back to Langres, where he died sitting in a chair the day after his return on June 3, 1759, Pentecost . He was buried in the Langres cemetery the next day.

Denis Diderot stayed in Langres in July 1759 to settle the inheritance affairs of his late father with his relatives and especially his siblings; in a letter of July 31, 1759 to Sophie Volland , he wrote:

“(...) My father left us Rentenbank notes valued at 30,000 livres , eight hundred bushels of grain valued at 40,000 livres, a town house, two pretty country houses, vineyards, goods, a few letters of credit and a piece of furniture like a man's Befitting the class. My brother and sister will get off better than me, and I'm happy about that. (...) "

- Denis Diderot

In the mirror by Friedrich Melchior Grimm

In an edition of the Correspondance littéraire of March 1, 1771, Entretien d'un père avec ses enfants , the long-time friend and confidante of Denis Diderot, Friedrich Melchior Grimm , describes a brief encounter with his father, Didier Diderot, in Langres:

Monsieur Diderot, maître coutelier à Langres, mourut en 1759, généralement regretté dans sa ville, laissant à ses enfants une fortune honnête pour son état, et une réputation de vertu et de probité desirable en tout état. Je le vis trois mois avant sa mort: en allant à Genève, au mois de mars 1759, je passai exprès par Langres, et je m'applaudirai toute ma vie d'avoir connu ce vieillard respectable. Il laissa trois enfants: un fils aîné, Denis Diderot, ne en 1713, c'est notre philosophe; une fille d'un cœur excellent, et d'une fermeté de caractère peu commune, qui, dès l'instant de la mort de sa mère, se consacra entièrement au service de son père et de sa maison, et refusa par cette raison de se marier; un fils cadet, qui a pris le parti de l'Église: il est chanoine de l'église cathédrale de Langres, et un des grands saints du diocèse. C'est un homme d'un esprit bizarre, d'une dévotion outrée, et à qui je crois peu d'idées et de sentiments justes. Le père aimait son fils aîné d'inclination et de passion; sa fille, de reconnaissance et de tendresse; et son fils cadet, de réflexion, par respect pour l'état qu'il avait embrassé.

(Approximate translation: Monsieur Diderot, maître coutelier in Langres, died late in 1759, in his town, so he could leave his children a fortune that was good for him, and kept a good reputation for virtue and honesty. I saw him for three months before his death, when I went to Geneva in March 1759, I came expressly through Langres and greeted the man who had been known and respected all my life and who left three children: his eldest son, Denis Diderot, born in 1713, is him Philosopher, a daughter with a good heart and an unusual strength of character, who at the moment of the death of her mother put herself completely at the service of her father and the house, and for this reason refused to marry, and the youngest son, permanent of the Church: he is the canon of the cathedral of Langres, and one of the great saints of the diocese, a man of the spirit, but with a bizarre, exaggerated devotion u nd I believe that some of his ideas are only emotional. The father loved his eldest son's affection and passion, his daughter's gratitude and tenderness, and his youngest son's thoughtfulness and respect, and he hugged her. )

Works

• Didier Diderot, Louis Marcel: Une lettre du père de Diderot à son fils, détenu à Vincennes (September 3, 1749). J. Bière, Bordeaux, (1928)

literature

• Hubert Gautier: Le père de Diderot (1685–1759), son testament, sa succession, patrimoine d'un maître coutelier langrois vers le milieu du XVIIIe siècle. Moulins, Crépin-Leblond, 1933
• Henri Beligné: Les couteliers de Langres et de Nogent sous la Révolution. In the Bulletin de la société historique et archéologique de Langres. n ° 313, tome XXI, trimestriel IV, 1993
• Janine Bouet: Les couteliers Langrois au XVIII ^e . DES, faculté des lettres de Dijon, 1966
• Jean-Jacques Perret: L'Art du Coutelier expert en instruments de surgery. Second partie de l'Art du Coutelier. Premiere section. Jean Desaint & Charles Saillant, Parigi 1772
• Société historique et archéologique de Langres: L'art de la coutellerie au pays de Langres et de Nogent: maîtres couteliers orfèvres et graveurs de Langres et de Nogent. Exposition Langres, Société historique et archéologique. Musée du Breuil-de-Saint-Germain 1966
• Jean-Pierre Martin: Instrumentation chirurgicale en France: Des origines au XIX ^e siècle. Editions L'Harmattan, Paris 2013, ISBN 978-2-343-00564-5

Web links

• Marie Souviron: Diderot, Langres et la religion . Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie Année 1988 Volume 4 Numéro 4 pp. 7–36
• Diderot à Langres . (PDF; 730 kB) Villes et Pays d'art et d'histoire Langres Villes et Pays d'art et d'histoire Langres.
• Pierre Béligné coutelier du Roi à Langres

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Compare this to the similarly structured painting by his son Denis Diderot
2. ^ Johanna Borek: Denis Diderot. Rowohlt, Hamburg (2000), ISBN 3-499-50447-2 , p. 147
3. ^ Diderot à Langres . ( Memento of the original from August 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ; PDF; 730 kB) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Villes et Pays d'art et d'histoire Langres Villes et Pays d'art et d'histoire Langres. 
4. ↑ Pierre Lepape: Denis Diderot. A biography. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt a / M (1994), ISBN 3-593-35150-1 , p. 233
5. ↑ La vie de Denis Diderot. (PDF; 3.4 MB)
6. ^ Georges Viard: Langres au temps de Diderot. In Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie Année (1987) Volume 3 Numéro 3 pp. 149–151
7. ↑ genealogy of Beligné family. From genea.net, accessed on October 28, 2012 (French).
8. ↑ Charles Danzin: Deux dynasties alliées de Couteliers Langrois: les Beligné et les Diderot. Heraldique et généalogie, n ° 181, (2006)
9. ^ Antoine Thomas Diderot Ordre des Prêcheurs (OP) (1682–1755), Claude DiderotT (1687–1689), François Diderot (* 1688), Félix Diderot (* 1689), Catherine Diderot (* 1690), Didier Diderot (* 1690 ).
10. ^ Genealogy of the Diderot family. From genea.net, accessed on October 28, 2012 (French).
11. ↑ Janine Bouet: Les couteliers Langrois au XVIII ^e . DES, faculté des lettres de Dijon, (1966)
12. ^ Anne-Marie Chouillet: Trois lettres inédites de Diderot Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie. Année (1991) Volume 11 Numéro 11 pp. 8-18; P. 9 footnote
13. ↑ Raymond Trousson: Diderot. Éditions Gallimard (2007) ISBN 978-2-07-034170-2 p. 10
14. ↑ Langres and Denis Diderot (Haute-Marne). Association Guillaume Budé-section d'Orléans. ( Memento of April 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
15. ↑ Biography of the son Denis Diderot in German
16. ↑ Louis Marcel: Le frère de Diderot: Didier Pierre Diderot: chanoine de la Cathédrale et grand archidiacre diocèse, fondateur des Écoles chrétiennes de Langres . ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Champion, (1913) 
17. ↑ Louis Marcel: Le frère de Diderot: Didier Pierre Diderot: chanoine de la Cathédrale et grand archidiacre diocèse, fondateur des Écoles chrétiennes de Langres. Champion, (1913)
18. ↑ Portrait of Denise Diderot (January 27, 1715 - March 26, 1797) Musee du Breuil-de-St.-Germain ( Memento of the original from October 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked . Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
19. ↑ The house where Denis Diderot was born in Langres with an inscription on the first floor, today a tobacco shop Journaux Tabacs le Diderot is on the ground floor
20. ↑ Marie Souviron: Diderot, Langres et la religion. Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie Année 1988 Volume 4 Numéro 4 pp. 7–36 online
21. ↑ Curved knives in surgery; see and compare also Jean-Jacques Perret: L'Art du Coutelier expert en instruments de Chirurgie. Second partie de l'Art du Coutelier. Premiere section. Jean Desaint & Charles Saillant, Parigi (1772)
22. ^ Johanna Borek: Denis Diderot. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-499-50447-2 , p. 145
23. ↑ Bulletin n ° 08-09. Parents ou Homonymes: Les Juvet de Haute-Marne par Eric Nussle
24. ↑ Histoire de la Bibliophilie. mercredi 20 février 2013. Repères pour le tricentenaire de la renaissance de Diderot, online
25. ↑ Denis Diderot: Letters to Sophie Volland . Translation of Gudrun Hohl. Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1986, p. 12
26. ↑ Denis Diderot. ( Memento of the original from September 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ; PDF; 587 kB) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 10