François-Henri Salomon de Virelade

François-Henri Salomon de Virelade (born October 4, 1620 in Bordeaux , † March 2, 1670 ibid) was a French lawyer, president of the government, neo-Latin author and member of the Académie française .

life and work

From Bordeaux to Paris

François-Henri Salomon came from a noble Venetian family who lived in Bordeaux in the fourth generation. He attended the Jesuit college in Bordeaux, studied law and was avocat général in Paris from 1638 to 1647 in the Grand Conseil . As a favorite of the Chancellor Pierre Séguier , who had taken over the patronage of the Académie française after Richelieu , he was elected to the academy in 1644 at the age of 23 (seat no. 29) without being able to produce his own works.

District President in Bordeaux

1647 he returned to Bordeaux, was there presiding judge and married Isabeau de Lalanne, the daughter of Parlementspräsidenten Sarran de Lalanne (1590-1664). In 1662 he inherited his father-in-law in this office, which is equivalent to a senior government president. He kept in touch with Séguier by letter and was awarded the Order of Michael in 1654 for his services . The correspondence with Séguier in 1659/1660 on the occasion of Louis XIV's trip to Saint-Jean-de-Luz was particularly intense . In Bordeaux, Salomon not only had to endure hostility, but also had to fight a bitter inheritance dispute with his sister-in-law Marie-Madeleine de Lalanne, widow of François de Montpezat, Baron du Freiche († 1654). He died with no offspring at the age of 49.

Author. Stay in Paris in 1667

In 1665, Salomon published two studies on Roman law in Latin that were judged to be very informative. In 1667 he traveled to Paris once and was treated there with all honors by the Academy.

Negative reception

Salomon was vilified and ridiculed by posterity for having been chosen over the candidate Pierre Corneille when he was elected to the Academy in 1644 , although he never wrote French works himself. The fact that Corneille was only accepted into the Academy in 1647 had political reasons and no connection with the person of Solomon.

Works (selection)

• Commentatio de judiciis et poenis Romanorum . Bordeaux 1665, 1695. The Hague 1719. In: Albert Henri de Sallengre: Novus thesaurus antiquitatum Romanorum . Venice 1735. (Dedication to Pierre Séguier)
• De officiis vitae civilis Romanorum . Bordeaux 1666. The Hague 1719. In: Albert Henri de Sallengre: Novus thesaurus antiquitatum Romanorum . Venice 1735.

literature

• Bonaventure d'Argonne (1640–1704): Mélanges d'histoire et de littérature, recueillis par Vigneul-Marville . Vol. 3, 1703, pp. 185-188.
• Louis Moréri : Supplément au grand dictionaire historique, généalogique, geographique . Vol. 2.1735, p. 271.
• René Kerviler (1842–1907): La Guienne et la Gascogne à l'Académie française. II. Henri François Salomon de Virelade et sa correspondence inédite (1620–1670) . Dumoulin, Paris 1876. In: Revue de Gascogne 1876, pp. 197-209, 299-314, 333-346, 481-493. (Gallica)
• Amin Maalouf : Un fauteuil sur la Seine . Grasset, Paris 2016, pp. 35–44.

Web links

• Short biography and list of works of the Académie française (French)