Joseph de Jouvancy

Joseph de Jouvancy (also Jouvency; Latinised Josephus Juvencius) (September 14, 1643 – May 29, 1719 Rome ) was a French poet, pedagogue, philologist, and historian.

Jouvancy was born in Paris on September 14, 1643. At the age of sixteen he entered the Society of Jesus, and after completing his studies he taught grammar at the college at Compiègne, and rhetoric at Caen and the College of La Flèche. He made his profession in the latter place in 1677 and was afterwards appointed professor at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand in Paris. In 1699 he was called by his superiors to Rome to continue the history of the Society of Jesus begun by Niccolo Orlandini, and was engaged on this work until his death.

Jouvancy wrote largely upon those topics which engaged his attention as a member of the order. He composed about ten tragedies, all of which were published in Paris, and several of which were frequently acted. It is not certain, however, that all the dramas ascribed to Jouvancy were written by him, for some of them are also attributed to other members of the order. Jouvancy also wrote many poems in Latin and Greek for special occasions. He procured the translation into Latin of many works in other languages, such as the funeral oration for Prince Henri de Bourbon, oldest son of Louis XIV, delivered in December 1683 in Paris, by the celebrated pulpit orator Louis Bourdaloue, Cleander et Eudoxius, a translation of the Entretiens de Cléandre et d'Eudoxe of Father Daniel. This latter work is a response to the accusations brought against the Society of Jesus by its critics; in 1703 it was put on the Index. The translation of the theological letters of Father Daniel to the Dominican Father Alexander Natalis contains a comparison of the teachings of St. Thomas and of the theologians of the Society of Jesus concerning Probabilism and its relation to the concept of Divine grace. In 1704 appeared Jouvancy's Appendix de Diis et heroibus poeticis, a widely read work which was a translation of the first two books of Pierre Gautruche's Histoire poétique pour l'intelligence des poètes et des auteurs anciens. Jouvancy also translated into Latin biographies, written by other Jesuits, of the saints of the order, St. Stanislaus Kostka and St. John Francis Regis.

...
Wikipedia