Author: Vaniere, Jacques
Biography:
VANIÈRE, Jacques (1664-1739: NBG)
Although called “the Virgil of France,” as an author who did not write in English and did not publish original work after 1770, Jacques Vanière owes his place in this bibliography to Arthur Murphy’s (q.v.) translation of The Bees in 1799—the first translation into English of any of his works. He was born at Causses, near Béziers in south-west France, on 9 Mar. 1664; educated at the Jesuit college of Béziers; and received into the Jesuit order in 1680. After studies in philosophy at Tournon, he served as a professor at Montpellier and Toulouse. His gift for modern Latin verse was evident early on and after publishing a few shorter pieces on rural subjects such as the dovecote, he conceived the idea of a comprehensive project on the Praedium rusticum or “country estate,” which appeared in ten books in 1707 and in an expanded form in 16 books in 1730. He also composed a Dictionarium poeticum (1710), gathered some minor Latin poems as Opuscula(1730), and laboured on a French-Latin dictionary that was left unfinished at his death. When he was called to Paris in 1730 to support (unsuccessfully) a claim for a collection of books bequeathed to the Jesuits of Toulouse, he was feted by literary society. He died at Toulouse on 22 Aug. 1739. (BNG 46, cols. 918-20)
Other Names:
- J. Vaniere
- Vaniere