Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix

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Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix
Catholic priest, professor, historian, author, explorer
Known forHistoire et description générale de la Nouvelle-France
Signature

Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix,

priest, traveller, and historian, often considered the first historian of New France.[2]

Name

Charlevoix's name also appears as Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix,[3] Pierre De Charlevoix,[4] and François-Xavier de Charlevoix.[5]

Life

Jesuit College in Quebec

Charlevoix was born at Saint-Quentin in the province of Picardy on 24[6][5] or 29 October 1682.[7] A descendant from a line of lesser nobility, his father held the post of deputy attorney general. His ancestors had served in positions in "great trust and high responsibility"[8] such as legal officers, aldermen, and mayors.[9]

On 15 September 1698,

ordained as a priest in 1713. In 1715, he published his first complete work, on the establishment and progress of the Catholic Church in Japan, adding extensive notes on the manners, customs, and costumes of the inhabitants of the Empire
and its general political situation, and on the topography and natural history of the region.

Charlevoix's work was halted by a

Bahama Channel. He was aided by nuns of the order of the Ursulines of Quebec, whose founder St Marie of the Incarnation later was the subject of one of his books.[16] Charlevoix and his companions returned to the Mississippi River via following the coast of Florida
.

Charlevoix's second trip to Saint-Domingue was more fortunate. He arrived in the colony at the beginning of September 1722. He departed for France at the end of that month, landing at Le Havre on 24 December.[5] Charlevoix kept a record of his entire expedition, which he published as the Journal d'un voyage fait par l'ordre du Roi dans l'Amérique Septentrionale de la Nouvelle France[16] Charlevoix's records of local geography were later used to improve regional maps. Unsuccessful in reaching the Pacific, he reported upon his return to France in 1722 of two possible routes: by the Missouri River, "whose source is certainly not far from the sea", or by the establishment of a mission in Sioux territory, from which contact with tribes further west may have been possible.[17]

In 1723, Charlevoix traveled to

Italy.[5]

For twenty-two years, from 1733 to 1755, Charlevoix was one of the directors of the Mémoires[5] or Journal de Trévoux, a monthly journal of literature, history, and science. On the pages of that journal, he lay down in 1735 the plan for a corpus of histories that should have given an all-inclusive account of the extra-European world. The plan was announced when his history of Japan—the first installment of the proposed series—was about to be published.[18] In 1744 he published his History of New France, drawing on various authors as well as his own observations, thus providing the most comprehensive book on the history and geography of the French colony.

His death, at La Flèche on 1 February 1761,[6][7] prevented him from developing his history of New France beyond 1736.

Legacy

Many places are named after him, listed here.

The region of Charlevoix north of Quebec City is one, as are

station named after him
.

Louise Phelps Kellogg wrote "Charlevoix was not of the temper of the earlier Jesuits of New France. He was by no means a zealot, and had no vocation to deliver himself to a life of suffering and deprivation for the conversion of Indian souls. Rather, he was a man of scholarly temper, interested as an observer in world affairs. […] His was an eager curiosity concerning life, rather than a burning ambition to be himself a moulder of destiny."[19]

Works

Charlevoix's works, enumerated in the Bibliographie des Pères de la Compagnie de Jésus (Bibliography of Jesuit Priests) by Carlos Sommervogel, fall into two groups.[

philosophe (Enlightenment intellectual) and engineer Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, which represent the most accurate material of the time.[20] His History and General Description of New France was of capital importance for Canadian history. His History and General Description of Japan was an expansion on the prior work of Engelbert Kaempfer.[21]

See also Charlevoix's work in Lénardon's index to the Journal du Trévoir.[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ Hist. Para. (1779).
  2. ^ Charlevoix, Pierre-François-Xavier De. History and General Description of New France. Translated by John Gilmary Shea. Vol. 1. New York: John Gilmary Shea, 1866. 1.
  3. ^ Hist. Esp. (1730).
  4. ^ Hist. & Desc. Gen. Nouv. Fr. (1744).
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Spillane (1913).
  6. ^ a b Charlevoix, Pierre-Francois-Xavier De. Journal of a Voyage to North America. London: Dodsley., 1761. XV.
  7. ^ a b Chisholm (1911).
  8. ^ a b Charlevoix, Pierre-François-Xavier De. History and General Description of New France. Translated by John Gilmary Shea. Vol. 1. New York: John Gilmary Shea, 1866. 1.
  9. ^ "Pierre François Xavier De Charlevoix." Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, 2000. Accessed 19 February 2012. http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=35371.
  10. ^ a b Baynes (1878).
  11. ^ a b c Charlevoix, History and General Description (1866), page 2.
  12. ^ "The professors all came from France. Scholastics, students of theology, came in their twenties to teach the grammar classes for 2 or 3 years before returning to France. The priests came in their thirties and spent at least a quarter century in New France, alternating between their roles as professor and missionary to the natives. Some devoted themselves entirely to education. The college had among its professors Father Pierre-François-Xavier de CHARLEVOIX, once Voltaire's master, whose Histoire et description générale de la Nouvelle France was published in Paris in 1744." Collège des Jésuites in The Canadian Encyclopedia
  13. ^ Charlevoix, History (1866), p. 4
  14. ^ Charlevoix, Pierre-François-Xavier De. History and General Description of New France. Translated by John Gilmary Shea. Vol. 1. New York: John Gilmary Shea, 1866. 3.
  15. ^ A voyage to North-America : undertaken by command of the present king of France ; containing the geographical description and natural history of Canada and Louisiana ; with the customs, manners, trade and religion of the inhabitants ; a description of the lakes and rivers, with their navigation and manner of passing the Great Cataracts / by Father Charlevoix ; also, a description and natural history for the islands in the West Indies belonging to the different powers of Europe ; illustrated with a number of curious prints and maps not in any other edition. Pierre Charlevoix. Dublin : Printed for J. Exshaw, and J. Potts, 1766. Vol2, p163.
  16. ^ a b Charlevoix, Pierre-François-Xavier De. History and General Description of New France. Translated by John Gilmary Shea. Vol. 1. New York: John Gilmary Shea, 1866. 4.
  17. ^ "Pierre François Xavier De Charlevoix." Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. 2000. Accessed 19 February 2012. http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=35371
  18. S2CID 145408022
    .
  19. ^ Charlevoix, Pierre-Francois-Xavier De. Journal of a Voyage to North America. London: Dodsley., 1761. XV.
  20. ^ Charlevoix, Pierre-François-Xavier De. History and General Description of New France. Translated by John Gilmary Shea. Vol. 1. New York: John Gilmary Shea, 1866. 6.
  21. ^ Charlevoix, Pierre-Francois-Xavier De. Journal of a Voyage to North America. London: Dodsley., 1761. XXIII
  22. .

Sources

External links