Charlevoix, Pierre-François-Xavier

CHARLEVOIX, PIERRE-FRANÇOIS-XAVIER. - French Jesuit, historian of the missions, b. at St-Quentin on 24 Oct. 1682, entered the novitiate on 15 Sept. 1698. Before his priesthood, he had taught grammar for four years at the college of Québec (1705-1709). In the years 1720-23, by order of the regent, he made a study journey through the French possessions in America, visiting the valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi and the island of St. Domingo. He then spent the greater part of his life in Paris, as scriptor at the college Louis-le-Grand. He died at La Flèche on 1 Feb. 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 completely reworked: Histoire et description générale du Japon (3 vols., Paris 1736; enlarged ed. 1754, 6 vols.; many reprints more or less modified in the 19th century). There followed the Vie de mère Marie de l'Incarnation (ibid. 1724; Italian trans., 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 ample plan for the composition of a corpus of the history of the new world. He began its execution with his Histoire et description générale de la Nouvelle France, (3 vols., Paris 1744): the third vol. 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). A Latin translation of it, with notes and corrections, was made by Fr. Domenico Muriel, last provincial of Paraguay, exiled in Italy: Historia Paraguaiensis (Venice 1799). It was then translated into Spanish, with Muriel's notes, by Fr. P. Hernández: Historia del Paraguay (6 vols., Madrid 1910-17; another volume was written by Muriel in continuation).

C.'s histories are vigorous works, written with extensive documentation and great breadth of view. Although surpassed in many parts by modern research, these works still retain great value. One must, however, beware of the author's tendency to idealize his pictures: the influence of the ideology of his time on his conception of the « noble savage » has been noted, for example. C. was deservedly called « the Herodotus of the Jesuit missions ».

Edmondo Lamalle