Guillaume Postel

Guillaume PostelPostel as depicted inLes vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres grecz, latins et payens(1584) byAndr ThevetGuillaume Postel(25 March 1510 6 September 1581) was a French linguist, astronomer, Cabbalist, diplomat, professor, and religious universalist.

Born in the village ofBarentoninBasse-Normandie, Postel made his way to Paris to further his education. While studying at theCollge Sainte-Barbe, he became acquainted withIgnatius of Loyolaand many of the men who would become the founders of theCompany of Jesus, retaining a lifelong affiliation with them.

Diplomacy and scholarship

Postel was adept atArabic,Hebrew, andSyriacand otherSemitic languages, as well as the Classical languages ofAncient GreekandLatin, and soon came to the attention of the French court.

Travel to the Ottoman Empire

Note of Guillaume Postel on the Arabic astronomical manuscript ofal-Kharaq,Muntah al-idrk f taqsm al-aflk("The Ultimate Grasp of the Divisions of Spheres"), 1536,ConstantinopleIn 1536, whenFrancis Isought aFranco-Ottoman alliancewith theOttoman Turks, he sent Postel as the official interpreter of the French embassy ofJean de La Fortto the TurkishsultanSuleiman the MagnificentinConstantinople.

Postel was also apparently assigned to gather interesting Eastern manuscripts for the royal library, today housed in the collection of oriental manuscripts at theBibliothque Nationalein Paris.

Works

De la Rpublique des Turcs, Guillaume Postel,Poitiers, 1560

InLinguarum Duodecim Characteribus Differentium Alphabetum Introductio(An Introduction to the Alphabetic Characters of Twelve Different Languages), published in 1538, Postel became the first scholar to recognize the inscriptions onJudeancoins from the period of theGreat Jewish Revoltas Hebrew written in the ancient "Samaritan" characters.

In 1543, Postel published a criticism of Protestantism, and highlighted parallels betweenIslam and ProtestantisminAlcorani seu legis Mahometi et Evangelistarum concordiae liber("The book of concord between the Coran and the Gospel").[1]In 1544, inDe orbis terrae concordia, (Concerning the Harmony of the Earth), Postel advocated auniversalistworld religion. The thesis of the book was that allJews,Muslimsand heathens could be converted to the Christian religion once all of the religions of the world were shown to have common foundations and thatChristianitybest represented these foundations. He believed these foundations to be the love of God, the praising of God, the love of Mankind, and the helping of Mankind.

In hisDe la Rpublique des Turcs(Of the Turkish Republic) Postel makes a rather positive description of the Ottoman society.[2]Postel was also a relentless advocate for the unification of all Christian churches, a common concern during the period of theReformation, and remarkably tolerant of other faiths during a time when such tolerance was unusual. This tendency led him to work with the Jesuits in Rome and then Venice, but the incompatibility of their beliefs with his prevented his full membership in their order.

Cosmographer and Cartographer

CHASDIA seu Australis terra, quam Vulgus nautarum di fuego vocant alii Papagallorum dicunt(Chasdia or Terra Australis, which the common sailors call Tierra del Fuego and others say is the Land of the Parrots). Part of Guillaume Postel,Polo aptata Nova Charta Universi,1578, inscribed:Ce quart de globe, ou demy Hmisphere contient dedans sa longitude clxxx degrs [180], partie Australle de l'Atlantide dicte Peru ou America par Americ Vespuce Florentin son inventeur, et davantage une partie de la Chasdia or terre Australle vers les Isles Mologa ou Moluques(This quarter of the globe, or half hemisphere contains within its 180 degrees of longitude, the Austral part of Atlantis called Peru or America after Amerigo Vespucci its discoverer, and furthermore a part of Chasdia or Terra Australis toward the Mologa or Moluccas Islands). Service historique de la Marine, fonds du service hydrographique, recueil no.1, carte no.10; Brazil, Ministrio de Relaies Exteriores, Rio de Janeiro, 193-3.

Postel is believed to have spent the years 1548 to 1551 on another trip to the East, traveling to theHoly LandandSyriato collect manuscripts. After this trip, he earned the appointment of Professor of Mathematics and Oriental Languages at theCollge Royal. He took an interest in geography in his course of lectures at the Collge Royal from 1537. In 1557, he published a short compendium under the name,De Universitate Liber, perhaps inspired by that ofHenricus Glareanus(1527). This geographer had drawn two polar projections which remained in manuscript. Postel enlarged his treatise in theCosmographicae Disciplinae Compendium, published in Basel by Oporinus in 1561, in which he set out clearly his ideas on the five continents: Asia-Sem, Africa-ChamorChamesia,Iapetiaor Europe andAtlantides-America divided intoborealandaustral, separated fromChasdiaor the Austral continent by theFretum Martini Bohemi(Strait of Magellan). TheCosmographicae Disciplinaehad an index of 600 names, which Postel put into his 1578 world map,Polo aptata Nova Charta Universi.[3]He inscribed on it to the south of South America a legend reading:Ce quart de globe, ou demy Hmisphere contient dedans sa longitude clxxx degrs [180], partie Australle de l'Atlantide dicte Peru ou America par Americ Vespuce Florentin son inventeur, et davantage une partie de la Chasdia or terre Australle vers les Isles Mologa ou Moluques (This quarter of the globe, or half hemisphere, contains within its 180 degrees of longitude the Austral part of Atlantis called Peru or America after Amerigo Vespucci its discoverer, and as well a part of Chasdia or Terra Australis toward the Mologa or Moluccas Islands).On his map, theTerre Australeis calledChasdiain three places: under Africa (CHASDIAEpars adhuc incognita); under America(CHASDIAEcalled residuum Atlantidis meridiana pars); and under the Moluccas (CHASDIAEpars), where it is joined to an unnamed New Guinea with itsRio S. Augustin. Between South America andChasdiais found the mention of theFretum Martin Bohemi(Strait ofMartin Behaim).Chasdiawas a term forged by Postel:Chasdia qui est vers le Gond ou Pole Austral ainsi appelle cause que de la Meridionale partie ou Australe procede la Misericorde dicte Chassed(Chasdia which is toward the austral Hinge or Pole, so called because from the southern or austral part originates Mercy called Chessed).[4]Another legend on the same map over the southern continent reads:CHASDIAseu Australis terra, quam Vulgus nautarum di fuego vocant alii Papagallorum dicunt(Chasdia or Terra Australis, which the common sailors call Tierra del Fuego and others say is the Land of the Parrots).[5]Postels world map strongly influencedGerard de Jodeand others of the Antwerp school.[6]Near East and Central Europe

Arabic astronomical manuscript ofNasir al-Din al-Tusi, annotated by Guillaume Postel

After several years, however, Postel resigned his professorship and traveled all over Central Europe, including Austria and Italy, returning to France after each trip, often by way ofVenice. Through his efforts at manuscript collection, translation, and publishing, he brought many Greek, Hebrew and Arabic texts into European intellectual discourse in the LateRenaissanceandEarly Modernperiods. Among these texts are:

Euclid's Elements, in the version of theastronomerNasir al-Din al-Tusi;

An astronomical work byal-Kharaq,Muntah al-idrk f taqsm al-aflk("The Ultimate Grasp of the Divisions of Spheres"), disputingPtolemy'sAlmagest.[7] Astronomicalworks by al-Tusi and other Arabic astronomers, which may have influencedCopernicus's theory ofepicycles;

Latin translations of theZohar, theSefer Yetzirah, and theSefer ha-Bahir, the fundamental works of JewishKabbalah, printed in 1552, predating the first Hebrew printing of these works by ten years;[citation needed] as well as other Cabbalistic texts, such as his own commentary on the Cabbalistic significance of theMenorah, which he published in 1548 in Latin and subsequently in Hebrew.

Two aspects of the soulTo Postel, the human soul is composed of intellect and emotion, which he envisages as male and female, head and heart. And the soul'striadicunityis through the union of these two halves.

The mind by its purity makes good errors of the heart, but the generosity of the heart must rescue the egoistic barrenness of the brain.... Religion to the majority is superstition based in fear, and those who profess such have not the woman-heart, because they are foreign to the divine enthusiasms of that mother-love which explains all religion. The power that has invaded the brain and binds the spirit is not that of the good, understanding and long-suffering God; it is wicked, imbecilic and cowardly.... The frozen and shriveled brain weighs on the dead heart like a tombstone. What an awakening will it be for understanding, what a rebirth for reason, what a victory for truth, when the heart shall be raised bygrace! ... The sublime grandeurs of the spirit of love will be taught by the maternal genius of religion. The Word has been made man, but the world will be saved when the Word shall have been made woman.

Yet Postel did not mean a secondincarnationof divinity, his sentiment and language make it clear that he spokefiguratively.[8]Heresy and confinementWhile working on his translations of the Zohar and the Bahir in Venice in 1547, Postel became the confessor of "Mother" Zuana, an elderly woman who was responsible for the kitchen of the hospital of San Giovanni e Paolo. Zuana confessed to experiencing divine visions, which inspired Postel to believe that she was a prophet, that he was her spiritual son, and that he was destined to be the uniter of the world's religions. When he returned from his second journey to the East, he dedicated two works to her memory:Les Trs Merveilleuses Victoire des Femmes du Nouveau MondeandLa Vergine Venetiana. Based on his own visions, these works brought Postel into conflict with theInquisition. Postel's ties, however, with the very men tasked with trying him led to a verdict of insanity, rather thanheresy, which carried the death penalty, and consequently Postel was confined to thePapalprisons in Rome.[9]He was released when the prison was opened upon the death ofPaul IV.Czechhumanistimon Proxenus ze Sudetu(15321575),[10]reports that in 1564 Postel was detained to the monastery of St. Martin des Champs in Paris,en raison de son dlire sur la Mre Jeanne.[11]Postel resumed his life in Paris, but theMiracle at Laonin 1566 had a profound effect on him, and that year he published an account of it,De summopere considerando miraculo, in which he again expound upon the interrelatedness of all parts of the Universe and his imminent restoration of the world order.[12]As a result, he was sentenced to house arrest by theparlement of Paris, and eventually spent the last eleven years of his life confined to the monastery ofSt. Martin des Champs.

Works De originibus seu de hebraicae lingua, 1538.

Les Magistratures athniennes, 1540.

Description de laSyrie, 1540.

Les Raisons duSaint-Esprit, 1543.

De orbis terrae concordia, 1544.

De nativitate Mediatoris, 1547.

Absconditorum clavis, ou La Cl des choses caches et l'Exgse du Candlabre mystique dans le tabernacle de Moyse, 1547.

Livre des causes et des principes,1551.

Abrahami patriarchae liber Jezirah, 1552.

Liber mirabilium, 1552.

Raisons de la monarchie, 1552.

La Loi salique, 1552.

L'Histoire mmorable des expditions depuis le dluge, 1552.

Les Trs Merveilleuses Victoires des femmes du Nouveau monde, 1553.

Le Livre de la concorde entre leCoranet lesvangiles, 1553.

Cosmographie, 1559.[1] La Rpublique des Turcs, 1560.

La Vraye et Entire Description du royaume de France, 1570.

Des admirables secrets des nombres platoniciens.