Louis de Beaufront

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Louis de Beaufront

Louis de Beaufront (born October 3, 1855 as Louis Chevreux, † January 8, 1935 ) was one of the first French Esperantists , but later became one of the spreaders of the planned language Ido, which was propagated by Louis Couturat , among others .

Much of Beaufront's life is puzzling. He gave himself the title of marquis , invented a family tree that linked him to the French kings, claims to have had a doctorate in theology and to have traveled to India and Japan. Allegedly he had already worked on his own project before Esperanto , "Adjuvanto", but gave it up for Esperanto.

Only after his death did it emerge that de Beaufront's real name was Louis Chevreux; his mother had been a beneficiary and his father was unknown. His biographer Roland Jossinet acknowledges that this talented autodidact played his role as a nobleman brilliantly and thus served the young Esperanto movement very much.

De Beaufront had discovered Esperanto as early as 1888. In 1898 he founded an Esperanto association "Société Pour la Propagation de l'Espéranto" (SPPE) and a magazine, mainly in French. In addition, his merits are considered to have advertised important personalities for Esperanto.

In contrast to the linguistic founder Zamenhof , de Beaufront emphasized the practical rather than the ideal side of Esperanto. After he was accused of having pocketed too high commissions as the broker for a contract between Zamenhof and the Hachette publishing house , the differences between him and the Esperanto movement grew.

Nevertheless, he was sent by Zamenhof as a delegate to a committee that had made the selection of an international language its task (the so-called delegation of the mathematician Louis Couturat ). There, however, it was not - contrary to the original agreements - that a choice was made between the already existing planned languages, but a new project that an unknown person had presented under the name "Ido". De Beaufront voted for this project, of which he later claimed to be the author himself in June 1908. Today it is considered proven that Ido comes mainly from Louis Couturat.

literature

  • Roland Jossinet: La franca savinto de Esperanto. In: Hervé Gonin: 1898-1998. Centjara asocia Esperanto-movado en Francio. Unua kajero , special issue of Franca Esperantisto 66 (2nd episode), August 1998, pp. 42–48.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Beaufront, Louis de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chevreux, Louis (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Esperantist and co-founder of the competing planned language Ido
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1855
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 1935