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Bernard de Montfaucon

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Bernard de Montfaucon
O.S.B.
Dom Bernard de Montfaucon, O.S.B.
Dom Bernard de Montfaucon, O.S.B.
Born 13 January 1655
Soulatgé, Languedoc, Kingdom of France
Died 21 December 1741 (aged 86)
Paris, France

Dom Bernard de Montfaucon, O.S.B. (French: [də mɔ̃fokɔ̃]; 13 January 1655 – 21 December 1741) was a French Benedictine monk of the Congregation of Saint Maur. He was an astute scholar who founded the discipline of palaeography, as well as being an editor of works of the Fathers of the Church. He is regarded as one of the founders of the modern discipline of archaeology.

Early life

Montfaucon was born on 13 January 1655 in the Castle of Soulatgé, a small village in the Corbières Massif, then in the ancient Province of Languedoc, now in the modern Department of Aude.[1][2] Other sources claimed his birth date is in 16 January,[3] the most accepted date.[4] After one year he was moved to the Castle of Roquetaillade, residence of his family. When he was seven, he was sent to Limoux, to the college run by the Fathers of Christian Doctrine.

Career

Montfaucon served in the French army as a volunteer and participated in the Franco-Dutch War of 1673. He was a captain of grenadiers and made two campaigns under the command of Marshall Turenne, participated in the Battle of Herbsthausen and fell ill in Saverne in Alsace. Because of his infectious illness he made a vow to Our Lady of Marceille to give one hundred livres to her sanctuary in Limoux and to become a monk, if he was able to return to his country as a result of her intervention.

After the death of Montfaucon's father at the Château de Roquetaillade, in 1675 he entered the novitiate of the Benedictine monastery of Bream in Toulouse. There he learned several ancient languages: Greek, Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, and Coptic.

In 1687 Montfaucon was called to the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and he started to work on an edition of the works of the Greek Church Fathers.

In 1705 Montfaucon examined and described the manuscripts of the Fonds Coislin, in Bibliotheca Coisliniana (Paris, 1705). In 1708 in Palaeographia Graeca Montfaucon became the first to use the term "palaeography".[5] The work illustrates the entire history of Greek writing. It contains Montfaucon's discussions of variations in Greek letter forms, the use of abbreviations in Greek manuscripts, and the process of deciphering archaic writing. It was Montfaucon's special interest. In this work he often cited Greek manuscripts in texts of Athanasius of Alexandria, Origen, and John Chrysostom.[6] The book dealt so comprehensively with the handwriting and other characteristics of Greek manuscripts that it remained the leading authority on the subject for almost two centuries.[7]

Montfaucon published 15 volumes of L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures between 1719 and 1724. An English translation of this work was published in 1721–25 under the title Antiquity Explained and Represented in Sculptures.[8] The work contained copperplate folio engravings of classical antiquities. It included a depiction of the "Barberini Vase", more commonly known as the "Portland Vase". This book is published in English under the title Antiquities.[9] The materials used in this work were taken from the manuscripts deposited in French libraries. It contains many illustrative facsimiles, though they are engraved in a rather coarse way.

In 1719, Montfaucon was nominated by Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. In 1719, following the death of the Jesuit priest, Michel Le Tellier (1643–1719), confessor to the late King Louis XIV, Montfaucon became confessor to the young King Louis XV.

Montfaucon died on 21 December 1741 at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where he was buried.

Legacy

In a letter of 24 June 1786, Josiah Wedgwood explains that he had seen Montfaucon's engravings of the Portland Vase.

Montfaucon was the original editor of the homilies Adversus Judaeos by saint John Chrysostom along with many other works of the Fathers of the Church.

Montfaucon laid the foundation for the study of Greek manuscripts. Scrivener stated that his work still maintains a high authority, even "after more recent discoveries", especially of papyri in Egypt.[10] Modern scholars agree that he effectively created a new discipline, palaeography, and brought it to an advanced state of sophistication.[11][12]

Montfaucon was largely responsible for bringing the Bayeux Tapestry to public attention. In 1724, the scholar Antoine Lancelot discovered drawings of a section of the tapestry (about 30 feet of the Tapestry's 231 feet) among papers of Nicolas-Joseph Foucault, a Norman administrator. (These drawings of the tapestry's images "classicized" the somewhat crude Anglo-Norman originals by adding shadows and dimensionality to the figures.) Lancelot, unsure of what medium the drawings depicted, suggested that they might be a tomb relief, stained glass, a fresco, or even a tapestry.[13] When Lancelot presented Foucault's drawings in 1724 to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris, they attracted the attention of Montfaucon, who subsequently tracked down the textile in the drawings with help from his Benedictine colleagues in Normandy.[14] This is often regarded as the modern "discovery" of the Bayeux Tapestry, which had been displayed annually in Bayeux Cathedral, perhaps for centuries, without attracting outside attention. Montfaucon published the Foucault drawings in the first volume his Les Monumens de la Monarchie Françoise. In anticipation of volume 2 of Les Monumens, Montfaucon engaged the artist Antoine Benoit, and sent him to Bayeux to copy the Tapestry in its entirety and in a manner more faithful to its style. Emory University art history professor Elizabeth Carson Pastan criticizes Montfaucon for his "Norman Triumphalist" point of view in dealing with the story of the Tapestry, despite the fact that he asserted that one should trust "the best historians of Normandy". She does state, however, that modern scholars are indebted to him for his process of examining many accounts of the Norman Conquest in interpreting the Tapestry, and his highlighting of the Tapestry's ambiguity and enigma [15] (such as why Harold Godwinson went to Normandy in 1064 and the identity of the elusive Aelfgyva).

Works

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Bernard de Montfaucon — French scholar, b. in 1655, at the ch'teau de Soulatge, Department of Aude, arrondissement of Carcassone; d. in Paris, at the Abbey of St-Germain-des-Prés, in 1741. He was the son of Timoléon de Montfaucon and of Flore de Maignan. His family, originally of Gascony, had settled in Languedoc after the Albigensian Crusade of the thirteenth century; its principal seat was the ch'teau of Roquetaillade (arrondissement of Limoux), where Bernard was reared. He was instructed by Pavillon, Bishop of Aleth, his father's friend, and in 1672, at the age of thirteen, he entered the Académie des Cadets at Perpignan, to prepare for a military career. After his father's death, he left home with his relative, the Marquis d'Hautpol, a captain of grenadiers in the Regiment of Languedoc, and served as a volunteer under Turenne (1673). He went through the campaign of Alsace, was at the battle of Marienthal, and fell dangerously ill at Saverne. In pursuance of a vow made to the Blessed Virgin, he then returned to his own country, resolved upon entering religion. On 13 May, 1676, he made his profession in the Benedictine monastery of Durade, at Toulouse. Being sent to the Abbey of SorËze, he there learned Greek, making rapid progress. He next spent eight years at the priory of la Grasse (Aude). Claude Martin, assistant superior of the Congregation of St-Maur, noted his zeal and caused him to be sent to the Abbey of Sainte-Croix at Bordeaux. Finally, in 1687, he was transferred to Paris, to the Abbey of St-Germain-des-Prés, which, under the rule of Mabillon, had become one of the chief centres of French erudition. He was then chosen to assist in preparing the edition of the Greek Fathers which the Benedictines had undertaken. To perfect his own training, he also began the study of Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, and Coptic, as well as that of numismatics, and in 1694 was appointed curator of the numismatic collection at St-Germain-des-Prés.

In 1690 Montfaucon had published a treatise on "La vérité de l'histoire de Judith". The monumental edition of the works of St. Athanasius, on which he laboured with Dom Pouget and Dom Lopin, appeared in 1698 and was well received (3 vols., folio, Paris; reproduced in P.G., XXV-XXVIII). Before undertaking new patristic labours, he resolved to study the manuscripts in the libraries of Italy. Obtaining permission in 1698, he set out with Dom Paul Briois. At Milan he made the acquaintance of Muratori; at Venice he was received very coldly, and was not even allowed to see the manuscripts in the Benedictine monasteries of San Giorgio Maggiore and San Marco. On the other hand, he was welcomed at Mantua, Ravenna, and especially at Rome by Innocent XI. Having been named by his superiors procurator general at Rome of the Order of St. Benedict, certain difficulties with the Jesuits led to his resignation of that office which brought with it so many distractions from his chief work, and in 1701 he secured his recall to France. The scientific results of his journey were embodied in the quarto volume of his "Diarium Italicum" (Paris, 1702). He also collected the notes of his companion, Dom Paul Briois, who had died on the journey (edited by Omont, "Revue des BibliothËques", XIV, 1904).

In the full maturity of his powers, at liberty to satisfy his passion for work, with a large experience of life and an intense fund of general information, Montfaucon now took up his abode at the Abbey of St-Germain-des-Prés, where he spent the last forty years of his life. Here a choice body of scholars gathered around him, his avowed disciples, whose affection for their master prompted them to take the name of "Bernardins". Among these were Claude de Vic and Joseph Vaissette, authors of the "Histoire de Languedoc", the hellenist Charles de la Rue (his favourite disciple), Dom Lobineau, the historian of Brittany, and even the Abbé Prévost, who was then a collaborator on the "Gallia Christiana". Montfaucon, moreover, corresponded with scholars all over Europe, and, in spite of the heavy tasks he took upon himself, he succeeded, thanks to his abstemious and regular life, in working almost to his last day. During this, his most productive period, he supplemented the former edition of the Greek Fathers with a "Collectio nova patrum et scriptorum graecorum" (2 vols., folio, Paris, 1706). In 1709 he translated into French the "De vita contemplativa" of Philo Judaeus, and essayed to prove that the Therapeutae there mentioned were Christians. Next appeared the edition of Origen (2 vols., fol., Paris, 1713) and that of St. John Chrysostom (13 vols., folio, Paris, 1718), prepared with the assistance of François Faverolles, treasurer of St-Denis, and four Benedictines, who spent thirteen years in collating 300 manuscripts.

The thoroughly scientific bent of Montfaucon's mind led him to elaborate a new auxiliary science out of the studies he had made for the verification of his Greek texts. As Mabillon had created the science of diplomatics, so Montfaucon was the father of Greek palaeography, the principles of which he established by the rigour of his method in grouping his personal observations. His great "Palaeographia Graeca" (folio, Paris, 1708) inaugurated the scientific study of Greek texts. Another auxiliary science of history, that of bibliography, owes to him a work still of considerable value, the "Bibliotheca bibliothecarum manuscriptorum nova" (2 vols., folio, Paris, 1739), a catalogue of the Greek manuscripts of the chief libraries of Europe. Lastly, Montfaucon intuitively saw what benefit might accrue to history from the study of figured monuments, and, if he was not the creator of archaeology, he was at least the first to show what advantages might be derived from it. Two of his works show him to be an originator. In 1719 he published "L'Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures" (10 vols., folio, Paris), in which he reproduces, methodically grouped, all the ancient monuments that might be of use in the study of the religion, domestic customs, material life, military institutions, and funeral rites of the ancients. Of this work, which contains 1120 plates, the whole edition of 1800 copies was exhausted in two months, in spite of its enormous size. The regent, Philippe d'Orléans, desired that the author should become a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and he was elected to replace PËre Letellier (1719). Montfaucon then conceived a more daring idea, a work, similar to "l'Antiquité expliquée", which should embrace the entire history on France. This work, the "Monuments de la monarchie franÁaise", dedicated to Louis XV, appeared from 1729 to 1733 (5 vols., folio, Paris). In it Montfaucon studies the history, as it is shown in the monuments, of each successive reign down to that of Henry IV. His reproductions are inexact, and the work remained incomplete. In 19 December, 1741, he read before the Academy of Inscriptions a plan for completing this work; two days later he passed away tranquilly, without any premonitory symptoms of illness. An indefatigable scholar, a bold thinker, an originator of scientific methods, he left after him a mighty generation of disciples to form the connecting link between the old Benedictine learning and modern scholarship.

DE BROGLIE, La société de St-Germain-des-Prés au XVIIIe siËcle: Bernard de Montfaucon et les Bernardins 1715-1750 (2 vols., Paris, 1891); GIGAS, Lettres des Bénédictins de la congrégation de St-Maur, 1705-1741 (2 vols., Paris, 1893); OMONT, Bernard de Montfaucon, sa famille et ses premiËres années in Annales du Midi, I (1892), 84, 90; Histoire de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, XVI (Paris, 1751).

References

  1. Back to citation "MONTFAUCON, Bernard". Enciclopedia Italiana (in Italian). 1934. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  2. Back to citation "Montfaucon, Bernard de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 1911. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  3. Back to citation "Dom Bernard de Montfaucon". quaspier.free.fr (in French). Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  4. Back to citation Gasnault, Pierre (2010). "Un précurseur des Antiquaires: dom Bernard de Montfaucon". Bulletin de la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France (in French). 1 (1): 113–116. doi:10.3406/bsnaf.2010.10807. Retrieved 22 February 2018 – via persee.fr.
  5. Back to citation Bernard de Montfaucon et al., Palaeographia Graeca, sive, De ortu et progressu literarum graecarum, Paris, Ludovicum Guerin (1708); André Vauchez, Richard Barrie Dobson, Adrian Walford, Michael Lapidge, Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages (Routledge, 2000), Volume 2, p. 1070
  6. Back to citation Books on Palaeography from the Arnold Semeiology Collection Archived 2010-05-30 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Back to citation Bernhard Bischoff, Latin palaeography: antiquity and the Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 1.
  8. Back to citation "Antiquity explained, and represented in sculptures., by Bernard de Montfaucon et al. | the Online Books Page".
  9. Back to citation Georgios Fatouros (1993). "Montfaucon, Bernard de". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 6. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 92–94. ISBN 3-88309-044-1.
  10. Back to citation Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose; Edward Miller (1894). A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament. Vol. 1 (4th ed.). London: George Bell & Sons. p. 21.
  11. Back to citation W. Wattenbach, Anleitung zur griechischen Palaeographie (Leipzig 1895), p. 4.
  12. Back to citation Bruce M. Metzger, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Greek Palaeography (Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 1.
  13. Back to citation Lancelot. Explication d'un Monument de Guillaume le Conquerant
  14. Back to citation Elizabeth Carson Pastan. "Montfaucon as Reader of the Bayeux Tapestry" in Janet T. Marquardt and Alyce A. Jordan (eds.) Medieval Art and Architecture after the Middle Ages (2009) p. 89
  15. Back to citation Elizabeth Carson Pastan. "Montfaucon as Reader of the Bayeux Tapestry" in Janet T. Marquardt and Alyce A. Jordan (eds.) Medieval Art and Architecture after the Middle Ages (2009) pp. 102–103
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