Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont (30 November 163710 January 1698) was a French ecclesiastical

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

Life

He was born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

into a wealthy

Jansenist Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by th ...

family, and was educated at the ''Petites écoles'' of

Port-Royal Port Royal is the former capital city of Jamaica. Port Royal or Port Royale may also refer to: Institutions * Port-Royal-des-Champs, an abbey near Paris, France, which spawned influential schools and writers of the 17th century ** Port-Royal A ...

, where his historical interests were formed and encouraged. At the age of twenty, he began his two monumental works, the ''Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique des six premiers siècles'' and the ''Histoire des empereurs et autres princes qui ont régné pendant les six premiers siècles de l'Église''. The first is a history of the first six centuries of the Christian Church. The second is a history of the Roman emperors during the same period. Tillemont became a priest at the age of thirty-nine and settled at Port-Royal. When Port-Royal was dissolved in 1679, he moved to his family estate at Tillemont, where he spent the rest of his life, pursuing his historical work with great devotion. His ''Histoire'' began to issue from the press in 1690 and his ''Mémoires'' in 1693. The publication of both works was not complete at the time of his death. The final volumes were completed and published posthumously by his secretary

Michel Tronchay Michel Tronchay (October 1668 – 30 October 1733) was a French Catholic priest, writer, philosopher, and the secretary of French historian Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont. After Tillemont's death, Tronchay completed and published volumes 6� ...

. Tronchay also published a biography of Tillemont in 1706 titled ''Idee de la vie et de l'esprit de M. L. de Tillemont''. Tillemont is cited frequently by

Gibbon Gibbons () are apes in the family Hylobatidae (). The family historically contained one genus, but now is split into four extant genera and 20 species. Gibbons live in subtropical and tropical rainforest from eastern Bangladesh to Northeast India ...

in his ''

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. It traces Western civilization (as well as the Islamic and Mongolian conquests) from the height of the Roman Empire to th ...

''. His works were among the first to provide critical surveys of the full range of source material. His prose style is considered dry, but he had a reputation for accuracy, detail and conscientiousness. His work was attacked on a large scale by

Honoratus a Sancta Maria Honoratus a Sancta Maria (1651–1729) was a French Discalced Carmelite, known as a prolific controversialist. His secular name was Blaise Vauxelles (or Vauxelle, Vauzelle), and he was known also by the French version of his name in religion, Hono ...

in his ''Réflexions sur les règles et l'usage de la critique'', three volumes (1712–1720).

Selected works

*''Histoire des empereurs et des autres princes qui ont régné durant les six premiers siècles de l'Église'' (6 vol.), 1690–97, 1701, 1738. *''Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique des six premiers siècles, justifiés par les citations des auteurs originaux avec une chronologie où l'on fait un abrégé de l'histoire ecclésiastique et avec des notes pour éclaircir les difficultés des faits et de la chronologie'' (16 vol.), 1693–1712. *''Vie de saint Louis roi de France'' (6 vol.), editor

Jules Renouard Jules Renouard (13 February 1798 - 20 February 1854) was a French book dealer, editor and bibliographer. Life Jules Renouard was born in Paris in the 11th arrondissement (under the city's pre-1860 district boundaries). His father was the indu ...

, Paris, 1847–1851. *''Calendrier des fêtes des saints illustres'', 1919.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Nain De Tillemont, Louis-Sebastien 1637 births 1698 deaths Christian writers 17th-century French Roman Catholic priests Writers from Paris Jansenists 17th-century French male writers 17th-century French historians French male non-fiction writers