Jean Mabillon
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diplomatic |
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Early life
Mabillon was born in the town of
In 1663 he was transferred again to
As editor and compiler
At Saint-Germain, Mabillon prepared an edition of the works of
De re diplomatica
In 1681, prompted by the doubts raised by the
I do not deny that in fact some
interpolated, but all of them should not be dismissed for that reason. Rather, it is necessary to devise and hand down rules for distinguishing genuine manuscripts from those that are false and interpolated. ... I undertook this task after long familiarity and daily experience with these documents. For almost twenty years I had devoted my studies and energies to reading and examining ancient manuscripts and archives, and the published collections of ancient documents. ... I compared and weighed them with one another that I might be able to compile a body of knowledge which was not merely scanty and meager, but as accurate and as well-tested as possible in a field which had not been previously investigated.[3]
This work brought Mabillon to the attention of
, in search of medieval manuscripts and books for the royal library.Criticism
Some of the less scholarly monks in Mabillon's own abbey criticized his Lives for being too academic; while Armand de Rancé, Abbot of La Trappe, declared that he was breaking the rules of his Order by devoting his life to study rather than manual labour.[4] He also caused trouble by denouncing the veneration of the relics of "unknown saints", wrote a controversial critique of the works of St. Augustine of Hippo, and was accused of Jansenism, but at all times he was supported by the king and the Church.
Later career and legacy
In 1701 Mabillon was appointed by the king as one of the founding members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and in 1704 a supplement to De re diplomatica was published. In 1707 he died and was buried in the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in Paris.
According to Fritz Stern, writing in 1956, Mabillon was the "greatest historical scholar of his century".[5]
The
See also
References
- ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- ^ Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Jean Mabillon". Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 December 2022
- ^ Jean Mabillon, De re diplomatica (1681), his Supplement to it of 1704, translated from Latin by Richard Wertis (using Naples edition of 1789) as On Diplomatics, in Peter Gay and Victor G. Wexler, editors, Historians at Work, Volume Two, Villa to Gibbon (New York: Harper & Row 1972): blockquote at 165, prior short quote at 167, document scrutiny at 168 & 169, Dagobert at 192. Three long excerpts from the Supplement appear at 164–198, introduced followed by a short bibliography at 161–163.
- ^ Mette B. Bruun, "A Case in which a Revitalization of Something Medieval Turned out not to be Medievalism," in: Falling into Medievalism, ed. Anne Lair and Richard Utz. Special Issue of UNIversitas: The University of Northern Iowa Journal of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity, 2.1 (2006) Archived 2011-07-20 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Fritz Stern, editor, The Varieties of History (Cleveland: Meridian Books 1956) at 406.
- ISBN 9781466591912.
External links
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- Jean Mabillon: De re diplomatica (1709) - Digital Reproduction (website in German)