Lelong, Jacques
LELONG, JACQUES (1665-1721), French bibliographer, was born at Paris on the 19th of April 1665. He was a priest of the Oratory, and was librarian to the establishment of the Order in Paris, where he spent his life in seclusion. He died at Paris on the 13th of August 1721. He first published a Bibliotheca sacra (1709), an index of all the editions of the Bible, then a Bibliotheque historique de la France (1719), a volume of considerable size, containing 17,487 items to which Lelong sometimes appends useful notes. His work is far from complete. He vainly hoped that his friend and successor Father Desmolets, would continue it; but it was resumed by Charles-Marie Fevret de Fontette, a councillor of the parlement of Dijon, who spent fifteen years of his life and a great deal of money in rewriting the Bibliotheque historique. The first two volumes (1768 and 1769) contained as many as 29,143 items. Fevret de Fontette died on the 16th of February 1772, leaving the third volume almost finished. It appeared in 1772, thanks to Barbaud de La Bruyere, who later brought out the 4th and 5th volumes.(1775 and 1778).
1 I.e. the three first books of the Historia Polonica of Vincentius (Kadlbek), bishop of Cracow (d. 1223), wrongly ascribed by Lelewel to Matthaeus Cholewa, bishop of Cracow. See Potthast, Bibliotheca hist. med. aev., s.v. " Vincentius."
In this new edition the Bibliotheque historique is a work of reference of the highest order; it is still of great value.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
