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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > L > Guy Lefevre de la Boderie


GUY LEFÈVRE DE LA BODERIE

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French Orientalist and poet; b. near Falaise in Normandy, 9 August, 1541; d. in
1598 in the house in which he was born. At an early age he devoted himself to
the study of Oriental languages, particularly Hebrew and Syriac. After much
travelling in different provinces of France he settled down to uninterrupted
study under the guidance of the Orientalist Guillaume Postel, who was a
professor in the College de France. Guy was an earnest student and his
scientific ardour was intensified by the religious enthusiasm of his character.
He was convinced that deep study and full knowledge were the surest natural
mainstays of faith. He felt, too, that if this was true generally, it was true
in a very special way in regard to Biblical work. He became an Orientalist
therefore, like many others, because he was an apologist. He selected Syriac and
Aramaic generally as his special department that he might come nearer to the
mind of Christ by the study of Christ's vernacular. His first published work of
importance was a Latin version of the Syriac New Testament published in 1560.
This work attracted much attention, and in 1568 Guy was invited by Arias
Montanus to assist in the production of the Antwerp Polyglot. Guy accepted the
invitation and proceeded to Antwerp with his brother Nicolas who was also an
Orientalist.



The work assigned to Guy by Arias Montanus was the editing of the Syriac New
Testament. He examined for this purpose a new Syriac manuscript of the New
Testament which Guillaume Postel had brought from the East. In 1572 appeared in
the fifth volume of the Antwerp Polyglot Bible the result of Lefèvre's work,
entitled "Novum Testamentum syriace, cum versione latinâ". This work included
the collated Syriac text and Lefèvre's previously published (and now amended)
Latin version. This work was republished by Le Jay in 1645 in the Paris
Polyglot. In 1572 Lefèvre published at Antwerp a short Syriac text which lie had
found accidentally thrown together with the Eastern Biblical manuscript above
mentioned. This text, furnished with a Latin translation, appeared under the
title "D. Seven, Alexandrini, quondam patriarchæ, de Ritibus baptismi et sacræ
synaxis apud Syros Christianos receptis liber". Lefèvre tells us (Epistola
dedicatoria, p. 4 f.) that he published this text to illustrate the agreement of
the ancient Eastern Church with the Western in the important matter of
sacramental ritual. To make the little text useful.for beginners in Syriac
Lefèvre vocalized the text and added at the foot of the page a vocalized
transliteration in Hebrew characters. In the sixth volume of the Antwerp
Polyglot appeared a further work by Lefèvre, "Grammatica chaldaica et
Dictionarium Syro-Chaldaicum". In the same year 1572, Lefèvre published, also at
Antwerp, a short introduction to Syriac, "Syriacæ linguæ prima elementa". This
work has no scientific value: it is little more than an account of the names of
the consonants and vowel signs with a few easy texts. On completing his work in
Antwerp in 1572 Lefèvre returned to France where he soon obtained the post of
secretary and interpreter to the Duke of Alençon. In this position he was
brought into close contact with the somewhat radical thought of the period. His
associates were men like Baïf, Dorat, Ronsard, Vauquelin de La Fresnaye, etc.

But Lefèvre remained, in spite of all, a strong Catholic and a steady enemy of
Protestantism. in 1584 he published a transliteration in Hebrew characters of
the Syriac New Testament, "Novum J. Chr. Testamentum, syriace litteris
hebraicis, cum versione latinâ interlineari". In this work the Vulgate and Greek
texts were printed at the foot of the page. But Lefèvre was not merely a
philologist; he was also a poet. his poetic flights, however, were not high, and
in his poetry, as in his Orientalia, the apologetic trend of his thought is
clear, he was as his friend Vauquelin de La Fresnaye said of him poete tout
chrestien. Among his more important poetic performances are: "L'Encyclie des
secrets de l'Eternité" (Antwerp, 1571), an apology of Christianity; "La
Galliade, ou de la révolution des arts et sciences" (Paris, 1578; 2nd ed. 1582).
which celebrates the return to France of the banished sciences; "Hymnes
ecclésiastiques" and "Cantiques spirituels et autres mélanges poétiques" (Paris,
1578-1582), many of which are translations from the Italian L'Harmonie du Monde"
(Paris, 1582), a translation of Latin work. Lefèvre published in his last years
an immense number of translations from Latin, Italian, Spanish etc., in verse
and prose. Most of these translations are apologetic, and few of them are of any
value. Lefèvre shows by the choice of his life-work that his thoughts were ahead
of his time. Of his life, apart from his writings, we know next to nothing. It
has been conjectured from some words of his in a poem addressed to Marguerite de
France that he was an ecclesiastic; and it has been said that Pope Clement VIII
wished to make him a cardinal. But Lefèvre would not allow himself to be led
away in his last days from his books to the Roman Court. He died in the peaceful
family mansion of La Boderie in 1598. An epitaph which he wrote for himself sums
up his life work simply and well:

> Tandisque j'ai vescu, j'ai toujours souhaité
> Non d'amasser trésors, mais chercher Verité.




SOURCES

DE LA FERRIÈRE-PERCY, Les La Boderie (Paris, 1857); NÈVE, Guy Le Fevre de La
Boderie (Brussels, 1862); NICERON, Mémoires Vol. XXXVIII, 303--314; COUJET,
Biblioteque Française VI, XIII.


ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Boylan, P. (1910). Guy Lefèvre de la Boderie. In The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09114a.htm

MLA citation. Boylan, Patrick. "Guy Lefèvre de la Boderie." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09114a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Mario Anello.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor.
Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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