Melchior de Polignac
Melchior de Polignac ( born October 11, 1661 Lavoûte -sur -Loire in addition to Le Puy -en -Velay, Velay (Haute- Loire), † November 20, 1741 in Paris) was a French cardinal, diplomat and poet.
Life
Born the youngest son of Armand XVI. , Marquis de Polignac in Le Puy -en -Velay, one already discovered in his early youth, the tendency to diplomacy. When the Jesuits was educated in Paris. At the Sorbonne, he earned his doctorate in theology.
1695 you sent him as ambassador to Poland, where he pursued the plans François Louis de Bourbon, prince de Conti, as successor of John Sobieski to elect 1697 Polish king by the Sejm. On June 27, 1697 Conti was elected King of Poland, but was able to Augustus the Strong not succeed and returned to France. The difference resulting from the intrigue failure meant that de Polignac temporarily with Louis XIV fell into disfavor because actually consequently the Great Conti should be removed from the court of Versailles. Ludwig therefore banished him as a benefice in the Abbey Bonport in Normandy. But already in 1702 received one Melchior de Polignac restored to favor at Versailles. Ten years later he was sent as a representative of Louis the Congress of Utrecht. On May 18, 1712 rose Clement XI. Cardinal Polignac. About 1724 he was given the title of Santa Maria in Portico diakonia.
During the reign of Duke Philippe II, Charles de Bourbon, duc d' Orléans over the still immature great-grandson of the Sun King, the future Louis XV. , De Polignac was in the so-called conspiracy of Cellamare to the same Spanish ambassador, Antonio Cell Amare, and the Duke of Maine involved against the Duke of Orléans, in which it came to the einzufordernde according to the covenant joint regency of both dukes. Following the discovery of the conspiracy by Cardinal Dubois de Polignac were banished for three years, to Flanders.
In 1704 he was elected to the French Academy, where he was one of the outstanding players who operated the exclusion of the Abbé de Saint -Pierre. As a result, he was elected to the Academy of Sciences ( 1711) and the Academy of Inscriptions and the fine arts ( 1717).
From 1725 to 1732 he served as Ambassador of France to the Holy See in Rome, where he worked as a zealous patron of the French painter and sculptor. So he promoted, among others, Lambert- Sigisbert Adam and his younger brother. For the ambassador, the brothers copied some ancient statues and restored more copies. De Polignac inaugurated on March 4, 1731 Church of Santi Claudio e Andrea dei Borgognoni.
1726 was de Polignac, the Archdiocese also in Gascony.
Also known as the author of more than 2000 verses in Latin occurred de Polignac in appearance. Melchior de Polignac died on November 20, 1741 in Paris.
He left a refutation of Lucretius in metric verses that the Abbé de Rothelin three years after his death as " Anti- Lucretius sive De Deo et Natura" (Anti - Lucretius or About God and Nature ), published. In his contemporaries very popular Polignac skills were even praised by Voltaire in typically ambivalent way: " aussi bon poète latin qu'on peut l' être dans une langue morte; Eloquent très dans la sienne; l' un de ceux qui ont prouvé qu'il est plus aise de faire vers latins que des vers français. Malheureusement pour lui, en combattant Lucrèce il combat Newton. "Even Goethe is said to have appreciated the Anti- Lucretius.
1742 Frederick II bought on the antiquities collection of the late cardinal, which formed their major pieces, including the ankles player, one of the building blocks of today's Berlin Collection of Classical Antiquities.