Jacques Sirmond

Jacques Sirmond (12 October 1559 – 7 October 1651), pseudonym Jacobus Cosmas Fabricius, was a French scholar and Jesuit.

Simond was born at Riom, Auvergne, France on 12 October 1559. He was educated at the Jesuit College of Billom. After having been a novice at Verdun and then at Pont-Mousson, he entered into the order on 26 July 1576. After having taught rhetoric at Paris he resided for a long time in Rome as secretary to Claudio Acquaviva (1590–1608). In 1637 he was confessor to Louis XIII. He died on 7 October 1651 in Paris.

Works

He brought out many editions of Latin and Byzantine chroniclers of the Middle Ages:

• Ennodius and Flodoard (1611)
• Sidonius Apollinaris (1614)
• the life of St Leo IX by the archdeacon Wibert (1615)
• Marcellinus and Idatius (1619)
• Anastasius the Librarian (1620)
• Eusebius of Caesarea (1643)
• Hincmar (1645)
• Theodulf of Orléans (1646)
• Hrabanus Maurus (1647)
• Rufinus and Loup de Ferrières (1650)
• his edition of the capitularies of Charles the Bald (Karoli Calvi et successorum aliquot Franciae regum capitula, 1623)
• edition of the councils of ancient France (Concilia antiquae Galliae, 1629, 3 vols., new ed. incomplete, 1789).

An essay in which he denied the identity of St Denis of Paris and St Denis the Areopagite (1641), caused a controversy. His Opera varia, where this essay is to be found, as well as a description in Latin verse of his voyage from Paris to Rome in 1590, have appeared in 5 vols (1696; new ed. Venice, 1728). To him is attributed Elogio di cardinale Baronio (1607).

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Jacques Sirmond — One of the greatest scholars of the seventeenth century, born at Riom in the Department of Puy-de-Dome, France, October, 1559; died in Paris, 7 October 1651. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1576 and was appointed in 1581 professor of classical languages in Paris, where he numbered St. Francis de Sales among his pupils. Called to Rome in 1590, he was for sixteen years private secretary to the Jesuit superior general, Aquaviva, devoting his leisure moments during the same period to the study of the literary and historical treasures of antiquity. He entertained intimate relations with several learned men then present at Rome, among them Bellarmine and particularly Baronius, whom he was helpful in the composition of the "Annales". In 1608 he returned to Paris, and in 1637 became confessor to King Louis XIII. His first literary production appeared in 1610, and from that date until the end of this life almost every year witnessed the publication of some new work. The results of his literary labours are chiefly represented by editions of Greek and Latin Christian writings. Theodoret of Cyrus, Ennodius, Idatius of Gallicia, Sidonius Apollinaris, Theodulph of Orleans, Paschasius Radbertus, Flodoard, and Hincmar of Rheims are among the writers whose works he edited either completely or in part. Of great importance were his editions of the capitularies of Charles the Bald and successors and the ancient councils of France: "Karoli Calvi et successorum aliquot Franciae regum Capitula" (Paris, 1623); "Concilia antiqua Galliae" (Paris, 1629). His collected works, a complete list of which will be found in de Backer- Sommervogel (VII, 1237-60), were published in Paris in 1696 and again at Venice in 1728.

DE BACKER-SOMMERVOGEL, Bibl. De la comp. de Jésus, VII (Brussels, 1896), 1237-61; COLOMIÈS, Vie du Père Sirmond (La Rochelle, 1671); CHALMERS, Biog. Dict. (London, 1816), s. v.

Bibliography

• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Jacques Sirmond". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.