Jean de Sponde

Jean de Sponde and Latinized Johannes Spondanus (* 1557 in Mauléon (today Mauléon-Licharre in the Basses-Pyrénées); † 1595 in Bordeaux ) was a French humanist and poet .

life and work

Jean de Sponde came from a Calvinist family from the Béarn . His father was an official at the court of the Queen of Navarre, Jeanne d'Albret . From 1569 he studied at the College of Lescar , where he was enthusiastic about Hellenism . At the age of 20 he began work on a Latin translation of Homer's works with extensive commentary. He also wrote some love poems that were only published posthumously.

In 1580 he traveled to Basel with the support of Heinrich von Navarra . He frequented the local scholarly circles and dealt with alchemy. After an intensive examination of the Psalms , he wrote his main work, the Meditations sur les Pseaumes , as well as the Essay de quelques poemes chrestiens , whose poems deal with theological subjects such as the Last Supper ( Stances de la Cene ) and above all with death ( Stances de la Mort ).

After 1583 he returned to France, where he was in the service of the Chancellery of the King of Navarre. In 1585 he was looking for Artesian wells in Paris .

From 1588 he was based in La Rochelle . In 1589 he stayed for unknown reasons in Paris, which was then ruled by the Catholic League , and was incarcerated. In 1591 he published commented Latin translations of the logic of Aristotle and the works of Hesiod .

In 1593 he converted - almost at the same time as King Henry IV - to Catholicism, which earned him the hatred of his former co-religionists, including Agrippa d'Aubigné . Henry IV also refused his conversion because he wanted a strong Protestant party and withdrew his support.

In 1594 he learned of the death of his Calvinist father, who had been murdered by members of the Catholic party. Bitter, he withdrew to Bordeaux, where he died in 1595. His brother, Henri de Sponde , also converted and became Bishop of Pamiers . Jean de Sponde's son of the same name, nephew of Henri de Sponde, also succeeded Bishop of Pamier in office.

annotation

↑ Johannes Spondanus: Homeri quae extant omnia cum Latina versione, perpetuis item iustisque in Iliada simul et Odysseam Joannis Spondani commentariis. Basel 1583.
↑ The former Huguenot co-religionists Agrippa d'Aubigné and Olhagaray describe his death in gloomy colors ("the children on the street, the woman in the brothel, he himself in the hospital", "he died in misery"). In fact, Sponde was buried in the Saint-André Cathedral with great sympathy from the population and dignitaries ; Ruchon p. 78 with reference to the sources.

literature

François Ruchon. Alan Boase: La vie et l'œvre de Jean de Sponde . Geneva: Cailler 1949.
Poètes du XVIe siècle . In: Albert-Marie Schmidt (Ed.): Bibliothèque de la Pléiade . Gallimard, Paris 1953 (French).
Alan Boase: Vie de Jean de Sponde . Genève: Droz 1977.

personal data
SURNAME	Sponde, Jean de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French humanist and poet
DATE OF BIRTH	1557
PLACE OF BIRTH	Mauléon (today Mauléon-Licharre in the Basses-Pyrénées)
DATE OF DEATH	1595
Place of death	Bordeaux

[1] Johannes Spondanus: Homeri quae extant omnia cum Latina versione, perpetuis item iustisque in Iliada simul et Odysseam Joannis Spondani commentariis. Basel 1583.

[2] The former Huguenot co-religionists Agrippa d'Aubigné and Olhagaray describe his death in gloomy colors ("the children on the street, the woman in the brothel, he himself in the hospital", "he died in misery"). In fact, Sponde was buried in the Saint-André Cathedral with great sympathy from the population and dignitaries ; Ruchon p. 78 with reference to the sources.