From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jacques Esprit
(22 October 1611, in
Beziers
? 11 June 1677), sometimes called
abbe Esprit
despite never having been ordained a priest, was a
French moralist
and writer.
Biography
[
edit
]
Born at
Beziers
, the son of a doctor from
Toulouse
, he joined his brother (an
Oratorian
priest) in Paris, where Jacques studied theology and letters from 1628 to 1634. He attended the
salon
of the
marquise de Sable
and entered the service of the
duchesse de Longueville
then of the
duc de La Rochefoucauld
.
Paul Pellisson
wrote: "He had a happy appearance, a delicacy of spirit, an amiable disposition, playful, and with much facility in speaking well and writing well
[1]
". His talents were noticed by
Pierre Seguier
, who rewarded him with a pension and made him a
conseiller d'Etat
in 1636. He was elected a member of the
Academie francaise
in 1639.
Falling into disgrace with Seguier in 1644, he took refuge in the Oratorian seminary. The
prince de Conti
visited and befriended him, lodging him in his hotel and giving him 15,000 livres with which to get married. When the prince was made governor of the
Languedoc
in 1660, Jacques Esprit accompanied him and served him as intendant. On his benefactor's death in 1666, he returned to live in his birthplace of Beziers, where he educated his three daughters and edited a single work,
[2]
La Faussete des vertus humaines
, and it was there that he died.
La Faussete des vertus humaines
[
edit
]
La Faussete des vertus humaines
went through many editions and was translated into English in London in 1706 as
Discourses on the Deceitfulness of Humane Virtues
.
List of works
[
edit
]
- La Faussete des vertus humaines
(2 volumes, 1678 ; 1693 ; 1709).
Online text
. Reissue:
Pascal Quignard
,
La Faussete des vertus humaines, precedee de Traite sur Esprit
, Aubier, Paris, 1996.
- L'Art de connoistre les hommes
(1702). Edition abregee de
La Faussete des vertus humaines
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
(in French)
Paul Pellisson,
Histoire de l'Academie francoise
, volume I, p. 345, 1653.
- ^
Paul Pellisson also gave Jacques Esprit as the author of a
Paraphrase de quelques
Pseaumes
. The attribution of
Panegyrique de
Trajan
par
Pline Second
, de la traduction de Monsieur l’Abbe Esprit
(1677) to Esprit is contested.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Henri Berna,
Pensees, maximes et sentences de Jacques Esprit : Considerations sur les vertus ordinaires
, Ellipse, Geneve, 2003.
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