Family Name: des Vignoles
First Name: Alphonse
Birth Date: Thu, Oct 07, 1649
Birth Place: Aubais
Death Date: Wed, Jul 22, 1744
Death Place: Berlin
Main places of activity:
Place From To
Cailar 1673 1682
Place From To
Brandenburg 1687 1701
Place From To
Berlin 1701 1742
Personal info:
Education

Des Vignoles's formation was fragmented and laborious.

After being entrusted to the teachings of Jean Du Moulin, he was sent to the Protestant school of Nîmes first and to the University of Geneva in 1669 to study theology. However, he did not complete his degree there and was called back to Aubais, where the pastor Jean Bruguier provided him with some rudiments of philosophy, theology, optics, algebra, geometry and astronomy.

In 1672, he was ready to join the Protestant academy in Saumur, where he continued his education under the guidance of Tanneguy Le Fèvre and Etienne Gaussen. From 1673 to his return to Aubais, he also studied Paris and Oxford.
Career

In 1675, des Vignoles became pastor in his home town, only to move to the church of Cailar in the same year. He performed his duties there until 1684.

Although he was directly involved in Claude Brousson's appeal to civil disobedience that included all the synods of southern France, it was not until the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 that he had to leave the country. Des Vignoles thus travelled to Geneva, Bern and Berlin, before joining the local church in the small town of Schwedt in 1686. In 1688 he was on the move again, reaching Halle, and he eventually settled in Brandenburg in 1689.

Des Vignoles became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences on its foundation in 1701, until Gottfried Leibniz convinced Fredrick II to call him to Berlin. From 1727, des Vignoles was the director of the mathematics class at the Royal Academy of Sciences.
Financial Situation

From 1675 onwards and almost without interruption, des Vignoles received a salary for his duties as a pastor. In addition, he received a pension that was increased from 1740 by Frederick the Great.
Translations Other Works

translations activities

Des Vignoles is known to have contributed to a single translation, from Latin to French.

secondary bibliography references

J. Sgard, 'Alphonse des Vignoles (1649-1744)', in Dictionnaire des Journalistes (1600-1789).

E. Haag, La France protestante ou les vies des protestants français qui se sont fait un nom dans l'histoire, vol. IX, Paris, Joël Cherbuliez, 1859, pp. 498-500, 549-552.

F. Palladini, Die Berliner Hugenotten und der Fall Barbeyrac: Orthodoxe und ‘Sozinianer’ im Refuge (1685-1720), Leiden, Brill, 2011, pp. 73-79.

Translations

  • De papa foemina

  • Translation Title: Histoire de la Papesse Jeanne, fidèlement tirée de la dissertation latine de monsieur de Spanheim
  • Original Author: Friedrich Spanheim
  • Original title: De papa foemina
  • Publ. Year From: 1690 to:
  • lang: Latin
  • Translation: Histoire de la Papesse Jeanne, fidèlement tirée de la dissertation latine de monsieur de Spanheim
  • N° Editions: 3
  • Pub. Place: Cologne
  • Pub. Date: 1693
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Des Vignoles took part in the translation of Spanheim's work together with Lenfant.

    In the second edition published in The Hague (1720), des Vignoles also annotated and slightly modified chapters one and five.

calamaio

By:

  • Giovanni Lista