Jacques Sirmond

Jacques Sirmond (12 or 22 October 1559–October 7 1651) was a French scholar and Jesuit.

Simond was born at Riom, Auvergne. He was educated at the Jesuit College of Billom; having been a novice at Verdun and then at Pont-Mousson, he entered into the order on the 26 July 1576. After having taught rhetoric at Paris he resided for a long time in Rome as secretary to Claudio Acquaviva (1590–1608). In 1637 he was confessor to Louis XIII.

Works

Sirmond was a most industrious scholar, and his criticisms were as enlightened as was possible for a man living in those times. He brought out many editions of Latin and Byzantine chroniclers of the Middle Ages:
*Ennodius and Flodoard (1611)
*Sidonius Apollinaris (1614)
*the life of St Leo IX by the archdeacon Wibert (1615)
*Marcellinus and Idatius (1619)
*Anastasius the Librarian (1620)
*Eusebius of Caesarea (1643)
*Hincmar (1645)
*Hrabanus Maurus (1647)
*Rufinus and Loup de Ferrières (1650)
*above all his edition of the capitularies of Charles the Bald ("Karoli Calvi et successorum aliquot Franciae regum capitula", 1623)
*edition of the councils of ancient France ("Concilia antiquae Galliae", 1629, 3 vols., new ed. incomplete, 1789).An essay in which he denies the identity of St Denis of Paris and St Denis the Areopagite (1641), caused a very lively controversy from which his opinion came out victorious. His "Opera varia", where this essay is to be found, as well as a description in Latin verse of his voyage from Paris to Rome in 1590, have appeared in 5 vols (1696; new ed. Venice, 1728). To him is attributed "Elogio di cardinale Baronio" (1607).

References

*1911