Paul Guérin
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Paul Guérin (; 8 March 1830 – 23 June 1908) was a French priest, professor of philosophy, writer and encyclopedist. He was gifted as a compiler, and is best known for being the author of the series '' Les Petits Bollandistes: vie des saints'', with fifteen volumes (1866–1869) that were republished several times.


Biography

Paul Guérin was born in
Buzançais Buzançais () is a communes of France, commune and town in the departments of France, French department of Indre, administrative regions of France, administrative region of Centre-Val de Loire. It is situated northwest of Châteauroux, the near ...
to parents with modest income. He studied in Buzancais at the municipal superior school. In 1842 he entered the minor seminary in Saint-Gaultier, then, around 1849, the major seminary of
Bourges Bourges ( ; ; ''Borges'' in Berrichon) is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre (Cher), Yèvre. It is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Cher (department), Cher, and also was the capital city of the former provin ...
. At the end of his studies he returned to Saint-Gaultier as a fourth grade teacher. He was then appointed to the Saint-Dizier college, where he taught for 13 years. At the same time as his teaching, he wrote and translated foreign works: for example, in 1857, ''
Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...
'' by
John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...
. In 1858–1859 he published, by subscription, 4 volumes of Giry's ''Vie des saints''.


''Dictionary of dictionaries''

Paul Guérin edited and issued, under his secular name, the six volumes of the ''Dictionnaire des dictionnaires. Lettres, sciences, arts, encyclopédie universelle'' (1884–1890), with a revised edition in 1892, to which an important ''Illustrated Supplement'' was added in 1895. As its title indicated, this work aimed to bring together “the substance of all the dictionaries ..the summary of human knowledge". The author announced that writing the articles had been entrusted "to special men, both scholars and popularizers". In fact, Paul Guérin surrounded himself with brilliant specialists, such as
Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (, , 9October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano ...
for music and Frédéric Godefroy for lexicography. The editor, Frédéric Loliée, a literary writer, wrote the introduction. The scientific part of the work counterbalances in places the traditional view of religious and theological articles. Instead of limiting itself, like its predecessors, to the forms in use in France, this dictionary opens up the description of the French language to the dialects of Belgium, French-speaking Switzerland and particularly Quebec. Biographies of authors and important articles were accompanied by a bibliography. In spite of these qualities, the new encyclopedia faced competition from ''
La Grande Encyclopédie ''La Grande Encyclopédie, inventaire raisonné des sciences, des lettres, et des arts'' (''The Great Encyclopedia: a systematic inventory of science, letters, and the arts'') is a 31-volume encyclopedia published in France from 1886 to 1902 by H. ...
'', launched in 1886 by
Marcellin Berthelot Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (; 25 October 1827 – 18 March 1907) was a French chemist and Republican politician noted for the ThomsenBerthelot principle of thermochemistry. He synthesized many organic compounds from inorganic substance ...
, and above all the ''
Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle The (, ''Great Universal Dictionary of the 19th Century''), often called the (), is a French encyclopedic dictionary. It was planned, directed, published, and to a substantial degree written by Pierre Larousse, though he also relied on anonym ...
'' published by
Pierre Larousse Pierre Athanase Larousse (; 23 October 18173 January 1875) was a French grammarian, lexicographer and encyclopaedist. He published many of the outstanding educational and reference works of 19th-century France, including the 15-volume . Early ...
. Unable to dominate the market, the company had to reduce its ambitions and each new volume of the encyclopedia became a little smaller than the previous one. Later dictionaries and encyclopedias largely copied the ''Dictionaries of dictionaries'', as Alain Rey reports; “when I read the twentieth century encyclopedia ... except for several elements ... these large pompous volumes reproduced the text of the ''Dictionary of dictionaries'', created under Prothonotary Guérin, whose name had disappeared ... ”. Driven into bankruptcy and then into breach of trust to finance his dictionary, Guérin was sentenced to prison and went into hiding at the end of his life in the Lot department.


Publications

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Notes


Sources

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Guerin, Paul 1830 births 1908 deaths French Catholics French lexicographers French encyclopedists