Jacques Auguste de Thou

Background

Jacques Auguste de Thou was born in 1553.

Education

At seventeen, he began his studies in law, first at Orléans, later at Bourges, where he made the acquaintance of François Hotman, and finally at Valence, where he had Jacques Cujas for his teacher and Joseph Justus Scaliger as a friend.

Career

He was at first intended for the Church; he received the minor orders, and on the appointment of his uncle Nicolas to the episcopate succeeded him as a canon of Notre-Dame. But his tastes led him in a different direction; not content with a knowledge of books, he wished to know the world and men. During a period of ten years he seized every opportunity for profitable travel. In 1573 he accompanied Paul de Foix on an embassy, which enabled him to visit most of the Italian courts; he formed a friendship with Arnaud d'Ossat, who was secretary to the ambassador. In the following year he formed part of the brilliant cortege which brought King Henry III back to France, after his flight from his Polish kingdom. He also visited several parts of France, and at Bordeaux met Montaigne. On the death, however, of his elder brother Jean (April 5, 1579), who was maitre des requites to the parlement, his relations prevailed on him to leave the Church, and he entered the parlement and married (1588). In the same year he was appointed conseiller d'itat. He served faithfully both the effeminate, bigoted and cruel Henry III and Henry IV, a sceptic and given to love-intrigues, because they were both the representatives of legitimate authority. He succeeded his uncle Augustin as president a mortier (1595), and used his new authority in the interests of religious peace, negotiating, on the one hand, the Edict of Nantes with the Protestants, while in the name of the principals of the Gallican Church he opposed the recognition of the Council of Trent. This attitude exposed him to the animosity of the League party and of the Holy See, and to their persecution when the first edition of his history appeared. This history was the work of his whole life. In a letter of the 31th of March 1611 addressed to the president Jeannin, he himself describes his long labours in preparation of it. His materials for writing it were drawn from his rich library, which he established in the Rue des Poitevins in the year 1587, with the two brothers, Pierre and Jacques Dupuy, as librarians. His object was to produce a purely scientific and unbiassed work, and for this reason he wrote it in Latin, giving it as title Historia sui temporis. The first 18 books, embracing the period from 1545-1560, appeared in 1604, and the work was at once attacked by those whom the author himself calls les envieux et les factieux. The second part, dealing with the first wars of : religion (1560 - 1572), was put on the Index librorum prohibitorum (November 9, 1609). The third part (up to 1574), and the fourth (up to 1584), which appeared in 1607 and 1608, caused a similar outcry, in spite of de Thou's efforts to remain just and impartial. He carried his scruples to the point of forbidding any translation of his book into French, because in the process there might, to use his own words, "be committed great faults and errors against the intention of the author this, however, did not prevent the Jesuit Father Machault from accusing him of being "a false Catholic, and worse than an open heretic" (1614). As an answer to his detractors, he wrote his Memoires, which are a useful complement to the History of his own Times. After the death of Henry IV, de Thou met with another disappointment; the queen-regent refused him the position of first president of the parliament, appointing him instead as a member of the Conseil des finances intended to take the place of Sully. This was to him a distinct downfall; he continued, however, to serve under Marie de Medicis, and took part' in the negotiations of the treaties concluded at Ste Menehould (1614) and Loudun (1616). He died at Paris on the 7th of May 1617. Three years after the death of de Thou, Pierre Dupuy and Nicolas Rigault brought out, the first complete edition of the Historic sui temporis, comprising 138 books; they appended to it the Memoires, also given in Latin (1620). A hundred years later, an Englishman, Samuel Buckley, published a critical edition, the material for which had been Collected in France itself by Thomas Carte (1733).

Achievements

• De Thou was treated as a classic, an honour which he deserved. His history is a model of exact research, drawn from the best sources, and presented in a style both elegant and animated; unfortunately, even for the men of the Renaissance, Latin was a dead language; it was impossible for de Thou, for example, to find exact equivalents for technical terms of geography or of administration.

Works

More photos

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  • Epistre de Monsieur le Président de Thou, au Roy (Classic Reprint) (French Edition)

    (Excerpt from Epistre de Monsieur le Président de Thou, au...)

  • Histoire Universelle De Jacques Auguste De Thou, Volume 6... (French Edition)

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Abrégé de l'Histoire Universelle de J. A. De Thou, Vol. 4: Avec des Remarques sur le Texte de Cet Auteur, Et sur la Traduction qu'On A Publiée de Son Ouvrage en 1734 (Classic Reprint) (French Edition)

    (Excerpt from Abrégé de l'Histoire Universelle de J. A. De...)

  • Abrégé de l'Histoire Universelle de J. A. De Thou, Vol. 5: Avec des Remarques sur le Texte de Cet Auteur, Et sur la Traduction qu'On A Publiée de Son Ouvrage en 1734 (Classic Reprint) (French Edition)

    (Excerpt from Abrégé de l'Histoire Universelle de J. A. De...)

  • Abrégé de l'Histoire Universelle de J. A. De Thou, Vol. 3: Avec des Remarques sur le Texte de Cet Auteur, Et sur la Traduction qu'On A Publiée de Son Ouvrage en 1734 (Classic Reprint) (French Edition)

    (Excerpt from Abrégé de l'Histoire Universelle de J. A. De...)

  • Abrégé de l'Histoire Universelle de J. A. De Thou, Vol. 7: Avec des Remarques sur le Texte de Cet Auteur, Et sur la Traduction qu'On A Publiée de Son Ouvrage en 1734 (Classic Reprint) (French Edition)

    (Excerpt from Abrégé de l'Histoire Universelle de J. A. De...)

  • Les Eloges des Hommes Scavans, Vol. 2: Tirez de l'Histoire de M. De Thou; Avec des Additions Contenant l'Abregé de Leur Vie; Le Jugement, Et le ... Ouvrages (Classic Reprint) (French Edition)

    (Excerpt from Les Eloges des Hommes Scavans, Vol. 2: Tirez...)

  • Les Éloges des Hommes Savans, Vol. 1: Tirez de l'Histoire de M. De Thou, Avec des Additions, Contenant l'Abrégé de Leur Vie, le Jugement, Et le ... Ouvrages (Classic Reprint) (French Edition)

    (Excerpt from Les Éloges des Hommes Savans, Vol. 1: Tirez ...)

Connections

Father:

Christophe de Thou

Uncle:

Nicolas de Thou, Bishop of Chartres