Jean Quintin or Quentin (, 20 January 1500 – 9 April 1561) was a

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

priest, knight of the

Order of St John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there u ...

and writer. His writings include ''Insulae Melitae Descriptio'' (1536), the earliest known detailed description of the

Maltese Islands The geography of Malta is dominated by water. Malta is an archipelago of coralline limestone, located in Europe, in the Mediterranean Sea, 81 kilometres south of Sicily, Italy,From Żebbuġ in Malta, coordinates: 36°04'48.2"N 14°15'06.7"E to Ca ...

, which also contains the earliest known printed map of the archipelago.

Biography

Jean Quintin was born in

Autun Autun () is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Saône-et-Loire Departments of France, department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region of central-eastern France. It was founded during the Principate era of the e ...

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on 20 January 1500, and he was the son of Philibert Quentin and Philiberta Laborault. He became a

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priest and he joined the

, becoming a

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of the

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of France and Secretary to the Grand Master. He was also a Professor of Canon Law at the

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. Quintin wrote on various subjects, including geography and cosmography. In 1536, he published ''Insulae Melitae Descriptio'', a description of the Maltese Islands which he had written after visiting

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

in 1530. In 1540, he published ''Tractatus de ventis, et nautica buxula ventorum indice'' in Paris. Quintin died on 9 April 1561, and he was buried at the in Paris.

''Insulae Melitae Descriptio''

''Insulae Melitae Descriptio'' is an eighteen-page-long description of the Maltese Islands written in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. It is dated 20 January 1533 and it was published in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

in 1536. It is notable for being the earliest known detailed description of Malta, and for its influence on later literature about the islands. The work is an original eyewitness account, but it also draws from classical Roman sources along with local medieval traditions such as that which states that

St Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

's shipwreck as recounted in the

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took place in Malta. The work included a

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map of Malta which is the earliest known printed map of the archipelago. The map is primitive but it depicts the islands' main characteristics fairly well, and it is likely to have been made by Quintin himself. The text of ''Insulae Melitae Descriptio'' was edited seven times and it was later partially translated into

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four times. An English translation by Horatio C. R. Vella was published in 1980, and it was included along with an annotated version of the original Latin text in an edition entitled ''The Earliest Description of Malta (Lyons 1536) by Jean Quintin D'Autun''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quintin d'Autun, Jean 1500 births 1561 deaths 16th-century French writers 16th-century French Roman Catholic priests Catholic chaplains French knights French travel writers Knights of Malta People from Autun Academic staff of the University of Paris