CHARLEVOIX, PIERRE-FRANÇOIS-XAVIER. — French Jesuit and historian of the missions, born at St-Quentin on 24 October 1682; he entered the novitiate on 15 September 1698. Before his ordination, he taught grammar for four years at the college of Québec (1705–1709). In the years 1720–23, at the regent’s command, he undertook a study journey through the French possessions in America, visiting the valleys of the St Lawrence and the Mississippi and the island of Santo Domingo. He then spent most of his life in Paris, as scriptor at the Louis-le-Grand college. He died at La Flèche on 1 February 1761.
C. occupies one of the most important places in the historiography of the missions. L'Histoire de l'établissement, du progrès et de la décadence du christianisme dans l'empire du Japon (3 vols., Rouen 1715) is still a youthful work, which he later reworked completely: Histoire et description générale du Japon (3 vols., Paris 1736; enlarged ed. 1754, 6 vols.; numerous more or less modified reprints in the nineteenth century). This was followed by Vie de mère Marie de l'Incarnation (ibid. 1724; Italian translation, Lucca 1727); Histoire de l'Isle espagnole ou de St-Domingue (2 vols., Paris 1730–31). In the January 1735 issue of Mémoires de Trévoux (pp. 160–72), C. set out an extensive plan for the composition of a comprehensive history of the New World. He began its execution with his Histoire et description générale de la Nouvelle France (3 vols., Paris 1744): vol. III contains the Journal historique d'un voyage fait par l'ordre du roi dans l'Amérique septentrionale. Finally came the Histoire du Paraguay (3 vols., ibid. 1756). Father Domenico Muriel, the last provincial of Paraguay, exiled in Italy, produced a Latin translation of it with notes and corrections: Historia Paraguaiensis (Venice 1799). It was subsequently translated into Spanish, with Muriel’s notes, by Father P. Hernández: Historia del Paraguay (6 vols., Madrid 1910–17; Muriel wrote another volume as a continuation).
C.’s histories are substantial works, written on the basis of extensive documentation and with great breadth of vision. Although surpassed in many respects by modern research, these works still retain considerable value. One must, however, beware of the author’s tendency to idealize his portrayals: the influence of contemporary ideology on his conception of the “noble savage,” for example, has been noted. C. was deservedly called “the Herodotus of the Jesuit missions.”