Cerlogne, Jean-Baptiste

CERLOGNE, JEAN-BAPTISTE. - Valdostan dialect poet, b. at St-Nicolas on 6 March 1826, d. there on 4 Oct. 1910. He was a chimney sweep and kitchen boy in Marseilles (1837-45), a cook at the major seminary of Aosta (1851-55), a valiant fighter at Goito, S. Lucia, Valeggio, Novara (1847-50), a student and seminarian (1856-64), a priest (22 Dec. 1864). Given his instability, he exercised the pastoral ministry in very different localities inside and outside the diocese of Aosta. Of a jovial character, he was exceedingly charitable and a lover of poverty.

His literary and theological formation was modest, but he had an artist's temperament and was an authentic poet. His language was the dialect of the Valley, of Franco-Provençal origin, whose spelling he was the first to fix, albeit by an empirical method, but with fine intuition and daily toil; he compiled its grammar and vocabulary.

His refined and good-natured art knew how to capture with rare skill the most varied states of mind and to portray savory and joyful family and pastoral scenes. His finest songs are: La marenda a Tisvallet (The snack at Chésallet) of 1855;

La bataille di vats a Vertozan (The battle of cows at Vertozan) of 1858; La pastorala (Pastoral) of 1861; La tsemin de fer (The railway) of 1886. His writings in French (prose and poetry) are not literarily worthy of note.

Works: only the principal ones are cited: Poésies en dialecte Valdôtain (Aosta 1890); Petite grammaire du dialecte valdôtain (Barbania 1893); Les étapes de la vie (2 vols., Aosta 1902, 1904: autobiography); Dictionnaire du patois valdôtain (ibid. 1907; preceded by the 2nd ed. of the Petite grammaire); Le patois valdôtain. Son origine littéraire et sa graphie (ibid. 1909). C.'s manuscripts are preserved in his native town hall of St-Nicolas.