Antoine Augustin Calmet

Background

Augustin Calmet was born on February 26, 1672 in Ménil-la-Horgne, near Commercy in Lorraine, in a modest family.

Career

At the age of seventeen Augustin Calmet joined the Benedictine order, and in 1698 was appointed to teach theology and philosophy at the abbey of Moyen-Moutier. He was successively prior at Lay, abbot at Nancy and of Senones in Lorraine. He died in Paris bn the 25th of October 1757. The erudition of Calmet's exegeti- cal writings won him a reputation that was not confined to the Roman Catholic Church, but they have failed to stand the test of modern scholarship. The most noteworthy are:-Commentaire dela Bible and Dictionnairehistorique, geographique, critique, chronologique et littbral de la Bible. These and numerous other works and editions of the Bible are known only to students, but as a pioneer in a branch of Biblical study which received a wide development in the 19th century, Calmet is worthy of remembrance.

Achievements

• As a historical writer Augustin Calmet is best known by his Histoire eccusiastique et civile de la Lorraine (Nancy, 1728), founded on original research and various useful works on Lorraine, of which a full list is given In Vigouroux's Dictionnaire de la Bible.