Jacques Cassagne

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Jacques Cassagne (also Jacques de Cassaigne) was a French clergyman, poet, and moralist born on January 1, 1636, in Nîmes, and he died on May 19, 1679, in Paris. He earned a doctorate in theology, served as custodian of the king’s library, and joined the Académie française at age 29. In 1663 he helped found the Petite Académie, a precursor to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres.

In 1665 he edited the preface to the complete works of Guez de Balzac, edited by Conrart. In 1674 he published a Moral Treatise on Valour. He translated Rhetorica (then thought to be by Cicero) and Sallust’s Histories into French, and Chapelain praised his natural style, especially in human letters. He was also a renowned preacher, though Boileau mocked him in his third Satire for the crowds who packed to hear the sermons of Cassaigne.

As a poet, Cassagne supported the Moderns in the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns. He published Sur la conqueste de la Franche-Comté in 1668 and Poëme sur la guerre de Hollande in 1672. He died at 43, with some attributing his death to the grief caused by Boileau’s satire.