François de Grenaille

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François de Grenaille , Sieur de Chatounières (* 1616 in Uzerche , † 1680 ibid) was a French writer and translator .

Live and act

François de Grenaille, following his vocation as a monk, was accepted into a monastery in Bordeaux in his early youth and then moved to a monastery in Agen . He then decided to give up his spiritual career and moved to Paris to pursue a literary career.

The moral works of the academic Nicolas Faret ( L'honnête homme , 1630) and the Franciscan Jacques Du Bosc ( L'honnête femme , 1632–1636), which also attracted much attention and were very popular at the time, inspired him to write several similar works within a few years (see chapter Early Works ). He was primarily addressing female readers.

It was probably thanks to the protection of influential women that Duke Gaston of Orléans appointed him his historiographer . Grenaille was - regardless of the low attention to his works - convinced of their approval, so that he had his bust placed in front of his writings and given the presumptuous inscription: "Sic mortales immortales evadimus" (ie "So we mortals become immortal").

Grenaille now also dealt with historical and political matters. Although he was in the service of the Duke of Orléans as a historiographer, he eulogized Richelieu , an opponent of the Duke, in an obituary dedicated to this ( Le mausolée cardinal ). These and similar acts appear to have led to an investigation against him for lese majesty . His political activities resulted in a prison sentence in the Bastille from 1648 to 1649 . If he was involved in the riots of the Fronde , his involvement in it should have been insignificant, since he went unpunished and was not mentioned in the relevant contemporary reports. According to his own report in the preface to the second volume of his work Le sage résolu contre la fortune (2 vols., Paris 1650-1660), however, he was in danger of suffering the death penalty by beheading . In the second edition (2 vols., Paris 1678), the book, which is just a translation of Francesco Petrarca's well-known work De remediis utriusque fortunae , was given the more precise title Entrétiens de Petrarque .

Grenaille also tried his hand at dramatic poetry. He wrote the tragedy L'innocent malheureux ou la mort de Crispe (Paris 1639). Grenaille stated that he had read the Latin tragedy Crispus (1597) by the Italian Jesuit Bernardino Stefonio on the same subject . Jean Racine later chose the same material for his Phaedra (1677).

Soon after Grenaille's death, his works were forgotten. They only found interest among lovers of curiosities, especially the Plaisirs des dames in the newer Leiden edition of 1643. A German translation of this work was also published under the title Frauenzimmer-Amustigung (Nuremberg 1657).

Works (selection)

Early works

  • L'honnête fille , Paris 1639
  • L'honnête veuve , Paris 1640
  • L'honnête mariage , Paris 1640
  • L'honnête maîtresse , Paris 1640
  • L'honnête garçon , Paris 1642
  • La bibliothèque des dames , Rouen 1640
  • Les plaisirs des dames , Paris 1641
  • La mode ou caractère de la religion, de la vie et de la conversation , Paris 1642
  • Théâtre de l'univers ou l'abrégé du monde , 2 volumes, Paris 1644

Works on historical and political topics

  • Le mercure portugais depuis la mort du Don Sébastian jusqu'au couronnement de Don Jean IV , Paris 1642; published anonymously; covers the history of the Portuguese Revolution
  • Le soldat suédois racontant l'histoire de tout ce qui s'est passé en Allemagne depuis la mort du roi de Suède jusqu'à présent avec un discours militaire sur la vie et la mort du Duc de Weimar , Paris 1642; Continuation of the first part written by the German Reformed theologian Friedrich Spanheim
  • Le bon esprit , Paris 1648; the Cardinal Richelieu dedicated to writing; German translation under the title Concerns of the High Spirit of Man (Frankfurt 1670 and 1674)

Other works

  • Le say résolu against la fortune. 2 volumes, Paris 1650–1660
  • L'innocent malheureux ou la mort de Crispe . Tragedy, Paris 1639

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Grenaille, François de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French writer and translator
DATE OF BIRTH 1616
PLACE OF BIRTH Uzerche
DATE OF DEATH 1680
Place of death Uzerche