Also known as:
French: Père Labat;
Latin: Joannes Baptista Labat
LABAT, JEAN-BAPTISTE. - Dominicanmissionary, writer and traveler, b. in Paris in 1663 (or 1664), d. there on 6 Jan. 1738. He professed in the Parisian convent of the Annunciation (rue St-Honoré) on 11 Apr. 1685. After some years of teaching at Nancy, he sailed for the Antilles (1693). Having spent two years as a parish priest in Martinique, he moved on to Guadeloupe; and from there again to Martinique.
In the eleven and a half years he lived in the Antilles he found occasion to employ his versatile genius in the most disparate fields: he was a mechanic and engineer, a leader, an agronomist, a geographer, an astronomer, etc., leaving among those peoples a memory still vivid and handed down from generation to generation. Having returned to Europe (1705), he remained there until his death, at first almost exclusively in Italy, then, from 1716, in the convent of the Annunciation in Paris.
L. left various writings of travel, his own and others', in which he reveals himself not only as a keen and sagacious observer, but also as a polished writer, though somewhat too indulgent toward witticisms and pleasantries. To be remembered: the Nouveau voyage aux Isles de l'Amérique... (6 vols., Paris 1722; various eds. and trans.); Voyage du p. L. en Espagne et en Italie... (8 vols., Paris 1730). He also wrote on West Africa, on Guinea and on western Ethiopia.
Bibliography7 worksQuétif-Echard, II, p. 806; R. Coulon, in Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum, III, Rome-Paris 1909-34, pp. 614-17; A. T. Serstvens in the intro
BIBL.: Quétif-Echard, II, p. 806; R. Coulon, in Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum, III, Rome-Paris 1909-34, pp. 614-17; A. T. Serstvens in the introduction to La Comédie ecclésiastique (Paris 1927), pp. 29-50 (historically weak); M.-D. Constant, La prétendue « Commedia Ecclesiastica » du p. L., in Revue des études historiques, 97 (1927), pp. 289-94; id., in Memorie domenicane, 45 (1928), pp. 237-40; J. Rennard, Le p. L. aux Antilles, Paris 1927; M.-A. Lamarche, Le p. L. ou l'humour d'un savant (1664-1738), Montréal 1938.
Redigonda, Abele. “Labat, jean-baptiste.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, coll. 773–774. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951. https://azioneromana.com/article/labat-jean-baptiste.
MLA
Redigonda, Abele. “Labat, jean-baptiste.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951, coll. 773–774. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/labat-jean-baptiste.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec7_labat_jean_baptiste,
author = {Redigonda, Abele},
title = {Labat, jean-baptiste},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VII},
pages = {773--774},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1951},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/labat-jean-baptiste}
}
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