LE FÈVRE DE LA BODERIE, GUY°

LE FÉVRE DE LA BODERIE, GUY ° (Faber Boderianus ; 1541–1598), French poet and Christian Hebraist. La Boderie was a pupil of the eccentric genius Guillaume *Postel and served the duke of Alençon as secretary and interpreter. He collaborated with Benito Arias *Montano in editing the second Complutensian Bible, the credit for which he later disputed with the Spaniard. Among La Boderie's contributions to this polyglot Bible (printed by Christophe *Plantin at Antwerp, 1568–72) were the Syriac version of the New Testament, and an Aramaic lexicon (Dictionarium Syro-Chaldaicum). The latter work displays the author's predilection for the Kabbalah, a significant element in his French verse. An honored associate of the celebrated Pléiade group of poets, La Boderie was moderate in his religious and his political views and remained aloof both from the Huguenots and from the Catholic League. Metrical renderings of the Psalms abound in his works, which include L'Encyclie des secrets de l'éternité (1571) and the epic La Galliade (1578). These long poems are full of biblical and rabbinic references and Franco-Hebraic conceits. L'Harmonie du Monde (1579), one of his many translations, expanded Francesco *Giorgio's Christian interpretation of the Kabbalah. La Boderie's "Gallic" exposition of such motifs as the cockerel, lily, and *menorah was inspired by the Zohar and by *Baḥya ben Asher's mystical exegesis. His brother, nicolas le fÉvre de la boderie (1550–1613), was also a Hebraist and contributed to the Antwerp polyglot Bible. He wrote Ad nobiliores linguas… Isagoge (1588) and a lengthy kabbalistic preface to the French translation (1570) of *Pico della Mirandola's Heptaplus.

bibliography:

P. Colomiès, Gallia Orientalis (1665), 41–42; F. Secret, L'ésotérisme de Guy Le Févre de la Boderie (1969); J. Perles, Beitraege zur Geschichte der hebraeischen und aramaeischen Studien (1884), 78ff.; B. Rekers, Benito Arias Montano (Dutch, 1961), 110ff.; A.M. Schmidt, Poésie scientifique en France au seizième siècle (1938), 182–214; idem, in: E.J. Finbert (ed.), Aspects du génie d'Israël (1950), 169–82; F. Secret, Kabbalistes chrétiens de la Renaissance (1964), 192ff.; G.E. Silverman, in: jc (Jan. 8, 1960).

[Godfrey Edmond Silverman]