Jean-Pierre Nicéron (11 March 1685 – 8 July 1738) was a French lexicographer.

Biography

Nicéron was born in Paris, a relative of the mathematician and Minim friar

Jean François Niceron Jean-François Niceron (5 July 1613 – 22 September 1646) was a French mathematician, Minim friar, and painter of anamorphic art, on which he wrote the ground-breaking book ''La Perspective Curieuse'' (Curious Perspectives). Biography Jean- ...

. After his studies at the Collège Mazarin, he joined the Barnabites, where he had an uncle, in August, 1702. Nicéron taught rhetoric in the college of

Loches Loches () is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department, central France. It is situated southeast of Tours by road, on the left bank of the river Indre. History Loches (the Roman ''Leucae'') grew up around a monastery founded about 500 by St. ...

, and soon after at Montargis, where he remained ten years. While engaged in teaching, Nicéron made a thorough study of modern languages. In 1716 he went to Paris and devoted his time to literary work. His aim was to put together, in a logically arranged compendium, a series of biographical and bibliographical articles on the men who had distinguished themselves in literature and sciences since the time of the Renaissance. After eleven years Nicéron published the first volume of his monumental work under the title of "Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des hommes illustres de la république des lettres avec le catalogue raisonné de leurs ouvrages" (Paris, 1727). Thirty-eight volumes followed from 1728 to 1738. The last volume from his pen was published two years after the author's death (Paris, 1740).

Casimir Oudin Remi-Casimir Oudin (14 February 1638 – September 1717) was a French Premonstratensian monk and bibliographer, who later in life was a Protestant convert, and a librarian in Leyden. He engaged in controversy with Anselmo Banduri. His major work ...

, J.-B. Michauld, and

Abbé Goujet Claude-Pierre Goujet (19 October 1697 – 1 February 1767), French abbé and '' littérateur'', was born in Paris. He studied at the College of the Jesuits, and at the Collège Mazarin, but he nevertheless became a strong Jansenist. In 1705 he a ...

later contributed three volumes to the collection and a German translation of it was published in 1747–1777. Louis Delamarre the author of Nicéron's biography in the Catholic Encyclopedia states it has been said that "Mémoires" lacks method, and that the length of many articles is out of proportion to the value of the men to whom they are devoted, but the work does contain a great amount of information that could hardly be obtained elsewhere. They refer also to sources which could be easily overlooked or ignored. Nicéron translated also various books from English, including "Le voyage de

John Ovington John Ovington (1653–1731) was an English priest known for his travel narrative ''A Voyage to Surat in the Year 1689'', which described his journey to Surat and his experiences there as an East India Company chaplain. Ovington travelled to Ind ...

à Surate et en divers autres lieux de l'Asie et de l'Afrique, avec l'histoire de la révolution arrivée dans le royaume de Golconde" (Paris, 1725); "La Conversion de l'Angleterre au Christianisme comparée avec sa prétendue réformation" (Paris, 1729).

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Niceron, Jean-Pierre Writers from Paris 1685 births 1738 deaths Barnabites University of Paris alumni French encyclopedists English–French translators French memoirists 18th-century French translators 18th-century memoirists