Florent Chrestien

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Florent Chrestien (born January 26, 1540 in Orléans , † October 3, 1596 ibid) was a French humanist , classical philologist , writer and translator.

life and work

Chrestien studied Greek and Latin and was (as a Protestant) tutor of little Henry of Navarre, later King Henry IV. As a librarian in Vendôme , he was captured by the Catholics and freed by Henry with a ransom. He converted to the Catholic faith with Heinrich.

Chrestien was together with Pierre Pithou , Jean Passerat , Nicolas Rapin (1535-1608), Gilles Durant de la Bergerie (1554-1614) and Jacques Gillot (1550-1619) author of the Satyre Ménippée (1593), a (very successful) satirical Combat pamphlet against the never-ending civil war and against the Holy League of the Guisen as well as for the installation of a strong, third-class king, namely Henry IV. In the round of fictional parliamentary speeches of the satyrs , Chrestien is the text of Cardinal Nicolas de Pellevé (1518– 1594) attributed.

Chrestien translated George Buchanan's tragedy Jephthes ( Jephthes sive Votum. Tragoedia , 1544; Paris, Guillaume Morel, 1554) from Latin into French ( Jephté , Orléans, Rabier, 1567; Paris, Robert Estienne, 1573) and Le Cordelier, ou le sainct François (Geneva, J. de l'Estang, 1567; original: Franciscanus et fratres , 1527). He also translated into verse the difficult technical text by Oppian of Apamea (not to be confused with Oppian of Anazarbos or from Cilicia), Les Quatre livres de la Vénerie [= "The four books of the hunt"] (Paris, Mamert Patisson, 1575 , Latin original: Oppiani de Venatione libri IV , Parisiis apud Vascosanum, 1549; now known as: Oppian (from Apamea), Kynegetika ). He also edited numerous ancient Latin texts.

Works (selection)

  • (with Pierre Pithou, Jean Passerat, Nicolas Rapin, Gilles Durant de la Bergerie and Jacques Gillot) Satyre Menippee de la Vertu du Catholicon d'Espagne et de la tenue des Estats de Paris , critical ed. by Martial Martin. H. Champion, Paris 2007, (online) .

literature

  • Brigitte Jacobsen: Florent Chrestien. A Protestant and humanist in France at the time of the Wars of Religion. Fink, Munich 1973 (Diss. Munich 1969).

Manual literature

  • Les poètes françois, depuis le XIIe siècle jusqu'à Malherbe , ed. by Pierre-René Auguis, Vol. 5, Paris, Crapelet, 1824, pp. 172-189.
  • Chrestien, Florent in: Robert Laffont, Valentino Bompiani: Le nouveau dictionnaire des auteurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays. Volume 1. R. Laffont, Paris 1994, p. 676.
  • Günter Karcher: Anonymous, La Vertu du Catholicon d'Espagne. In: Irene Schwendemann (Ed.): Major works of French literature. Individual presentations and interpretations. Kindler, Munich 1976, pp. 107-108.

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