César-Pierre Richelet
César-Pierre Richelet (French pronunciation: [sezaʁ pjɛʁ ʁiʃlɛ]; 8 November 1626 – 23 November 1698) was a French grammarian and lexicographer, and the editor of the first dictionary of the French language.
Life
Richelet was born in Cheminon. His first position was regent of the College of Vitry-le-François, next preceptor in Dijon. Received as an advocate in service to the Parliament of Paris, he abandoned his affairs for literature and researched the Society of Perrot d'Ablancourt and that of Petru. He strengthened his knowledge of classical languages, learned Italian and Spanish, and applied himself above all to discovering the origins of the French language. He died in Paris.
Works
He is the author of the first French dictionary compiled in a methodical way, published under the title of:
- Dictionnaire françois, contenant les mots et les choses, plusieurs nouvelles remarques sur la langue française, ses expressions propres, figurées et burlesques, la prononciation des mots les plus difficiles, le genre des noms, le régime des verbes, avec les termes les plus communs des arts et des sciences: le tout tiré de l'usage et des bons auteurs de la langue française (Geneva, 1680).
His caustic sense of humour earned him enemies; this first edition, of which there were several counterfeit foreign editions, contains satirical passages at the expense of notables of the day including Amelot de La Houssaye, Furetière, Varillas, and others.
Later editions of Richelet were published, both expurgated and augmented. Those that appeared after his death are distinguished by that of Pierre Aubert (Lyon, 1728, 3 vol. in-fol.) and that of Goujet (Ibid., 1759–63, 3 vol. in-fol.). Later editions were abridged such as that of Gattel (Paris, 1842, 2 vol. in-8).
Other works by Richelet are:
- La Versification française, ou l'Art de bien faire et tourner les vers (Paris, 1671, in-12) *Commencements de la langue française, ou Grammaire tirée de l'usage et des bons auteurs (Ibid., 1694., in-12)
- Connaissance des genres français (Ibid., 1694, in-12)
He was also the author of several untitled translations as well as:
- Les plus belles Lettres des meilleurs auteurs français (Lyon, 1689, in-12 ; Paris, 1698, 2 vol. in-12) and editor of:
- Dictionnaire des rimes (Paris, 1667, in-12), which he attributed to himself but was the work of Fr. d'Ablancourt.
His Dictionnaire françois is distinguished in:
- the rejection of dialect words
- only including words in general use
- the rejection of archaic words
- the rejection of trivial words
References
- Gustave Vapereau, Dictionnaire universel des littératures, Paris, Hachette, 1876
- Gilles Petrequin, Le Dictionnaire françois de P. Richelet (Genève, 1679/1680). Etude de métalexicographie historique (Peeters, Leuven/Paris, 2009, 1124 p.)
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- Pages with French IPA
- Articles with FAST identifiers
- Articles with ISNI identifiers
- Articles with VIAF identifiers
- Articles with WorldCat Entities identifiers
- Articles with BIBSYS identifiers
- Articles with BNE identifiers
- Articles with BNF identifiers
- Articles with BNFdata identifiers
- Articles with CANTICN identifiers
- Articles with GND identifiers
- Articles with J9U identifiers
- Articles with LCCN identifiers
- Articles with Libris identifiers
- Articles with NDL identifiers
- Articles with NKC identifiers
- Articles with NLG identifiers
- Articles with NTA identifiers
- Articles with PLWABN identifiers
- Articles with PortugalA identifiers
- Articles with CINII identifiers
- Articles with KULTURNAV identifiers
- Articles with BPN identifiers
- Articles with DTBIO identifiers
- Articles with Trove identifiers
- Articles with RISM identifiers
- Articles with SUDOC identifiers
- 1626 births
- 1698 deaths
- People from Marne (department)
- Grammarians from France
- French lexicographers
- French translators
- 17th-century French translators