Pierre Julien Rouille

Statut : Author / Contributor

1681-1740

Notes : François Catrou (1659-1737) entered the Jesuit order in 1678. He taught at the Collège de Rouen, then was a preacher for seven years before devoting himself to literature. In 1695, he published “Histoire des anabaptistes” and in 1701 he launched the “Journal de Trévoux”. His “Histoire générale de l’empire du Mogol” was published in 1705, and translated into English and Italian. In 1733, Catrou also published the « Histoire du fanatisme dans la religion protestante ». Before beginning work on his “Histoire Romaine”, he published a translation of the works of Virgil, of which the most complete edition is that of 1729 (4 vols., « with critical and historical notes »). Pierre-Julien Rouillé studied at the collège de Tours before joining the order of St-Ignace (the Jesuit order). Completing his novitiate in Paris, he taught humanities, philosophy and mathematics, for 22 years at various colleges in Tours. It was in order to assist Catrou in collecting the information for his Histoire romaine that he returned to Paris. From 1733 to 1737, he also took charge of the “Journal de Trévoux”. On the death of Catrou, Rouillé continued the “Histoire romaine”, but died in turn three years after his friend. The “Histoire romaine”, published between 1725 and 1737 in 21 volumes, was reprinted in 1737 in 24 volumes. Addressed to the king, who was advised to take lessons from it in order to perfect his « art of government », the work does not disguise its predilection for the « wise » and « virtuous » Roman senate in contrast to a « factious » people, which nevertheless, thanks to divine providence, ended despite everything in showing its « docility » and « attachment » to its masters in rendering itself « worthy of their tender care ». From this point of view the “Histoire romaine” seems well suited to consolidate, rather than bring into question, the absolutist power of the French monarchy. Mistrusting the debate that broke out within the Académie des Inscriptions in the years 1722-1725, on the authenticity of the historical sources for the early centuries of Rome, Catrou et Rouillé, despite mentioning in their preface the views of Lévesque de Pouilly, pass over his name in silence and relegate the whole debate to the category of a « jeu d’esprit ». The last to have attempted to complete this work was Bernard Rothe ou Routh (1695-1768), a Jesuit of Irish origin. Embarking on the enterprise with little enthusiasm he did not progress far : « In giving to the public a work, which is more the fruit of my submission than of my choice, I trust I may spare them the tedious description of the reasons which have delayed its publication », he writes in the preface to the volume which he published in 1748, on Caligula and Claudius : “Histoire Romaine. Caligula et Claude empereurs. Avec des notes historiques, géographiques, & critiques ; des Gravûres en Taille-douce ; des Cartes Géographiques, & plusieurs Médailles authentiques. Depuis l’An de Rome 789, jusqu’à l’An 798”, by Bernard Rothe, priest of the Society of Jesus, Jacques Rollin, Paris, 1748.

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