CALMETTE, JEAN. - Missionary and Indologist, b. at Rodez (Aveyron, France) on 5 May 1693, d. in February 1740. A Jesuit in 1709, he left for India, where he arrived in 1726 at Pondicherry. His activity unfolded entirely in Telugu country.
Fr. C. distinguished himself by his knowledge of the Sanskrit language: he was the first to succeed in obtaining the text of the four Vedas, sacred books that the Brahmins jealously concealed; the copies he had made are preserved in the National Library of Paris. But these texts have nothing to do with the Écour Vedam, in which Voltaire believed he found arguments against Christianity and which is a vulgar imposture: the names of Frs. de Nobili and C. have wrongly been brought into this affair.
Some letters of C. are printed in the Lettres édificantes; Fr. P. Dahmen published: Extraits de lettres inédites du p. J. C. S. I., missionnaire dans l'Inde, in Revue d'histoire des missions, 2 (1934) pp. 109-25.
Bibliography4 worksSommervogel, II, coll. 365-67; VIII, col. 1968; Streit, Bibl., VI, pp. 82-83 (partly inaccurate); J. Castets, L'Écour Vedam de Voltaire et l
BIBL.: Sommervogel, II, coll. 365-67; VIII, col. 1968; Streit, Bibl., VI, pp. 82-83 (partly inaccurate); J. Castets, L'Écour Vedam de Voltaire et les pseudo-vedams de Pondichéry, Pondicherry 1935.
Lamalle, Edmondo. “Calmette, jean.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III, col. 398. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949. https://azioneromana.com/article/calmette-jean.
MLA
Lamalle, Edmondo. “Calmette, jean.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949, col. 398. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/calmette-jean.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec3_calmette_jean,
author = {Lamalle, Edmondo},
title = {Calmette, jean},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {III},
pages = {398},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1949},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/calmette-jean}
}
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