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Cesar Vichard de Saint-Real

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CESAR VICHARD DE SAINT-REAL (1639-1692), French historian, was born in Savoy, but educated in Paris by the Jesuits. Varillas gave him his taste for history and served as his model; he wrote hardly anything but historical novels. The only merit of his Don Carlos (1673) is that of having furnished Schiller with several of the speeches in his drama. In the following year he produced the Conjuration des Espagnols contre la Republique de Venise en 1618, which had a phenomenal success, but is all the same merely a literary pastiche in the style of Sallust. This work and his reputation as a free-thinker brought him to the notice of Hortense Mancini, duchesse de Mazarin, whose reader and friend he became, and who took him with her to England (1675). The authorship of the duchess's Memoires has been ascribed to him, but without reason. Among his authentic works is included a short treatise De la critique (1691), directed against Andry de Boisregard's Reflexions sur la langue francoise. His CEuvres completes were published in 3 volumes (1745); a second edition (1757) reached 8 volumes, but this is due to the inclusion of some works falsely attributed to him. Saint-Real was, in fact, a fashionable writer of his period; the demand for him in the book-market was similar to that for Saint-Evremond, to whom he was inferior. He wrote in an easy and pleasant, but mediocre style.

See Pere Lelong, Bibliotheque historique de la France, No. 48, 122; Barolo, Memorie spettanti alla vita di Saint-Real (1780; Saint-Real was an associate of the Academy of Turin); Sayous, Histoire de la litterature francaise a l'etranger. 'ST Remy,' a town of south-eastern France in the department of Bouches-du-Rhone, 15 m. N.E. of Arles by road. Pop. (1906), town, 3668; commune, 6148. It is prettily situated to the north of the range of hills named the Alpines or Alpilles in a valley of olive trees. The town has a modern church with a lofty 14th-century spire. About a mile to the south are GalloRoman relics of the ancient Glanum, destroyed about 480. They comprise a triumphal arch and a fine three-storied mausoleum of uncertain date. Near by is the old priory of St Paul-de-Mausole with an interesting church and cloister of Romanesque architecture. In the vicinity of St Remy there are quarries of building stone, and seed-cultivation is an important industry.

A town of northern France, in the department of Somme, 8 m. N.E. of Abbeville by rail. Pop. (1906) 1158. St Riquier (originally Centula ) was famous for its abbey, founded about 625 by Riquier (Richarnis ), son of the governor of the town. It was enriched by King Dagobert and prospered under the abbacy of Angilbert, son-in-law of Charlemagne. The buildings (18th century) are occupied by an ecclesiastical seminary. The church, a magnificent example of flamboyant Gothic architecture of the 15th and 16th centuries, has a richly sculptured west front surmounted by a square tower. In the interior the fine vaulting, the Renaissance font and carved stalls, and the frescoes in the treasury are especially noteworthy. The treasury, among other valuable relics, possesses a copper cross said to be the work of St Eloi (Eligius). The town has a municipal belfry of the 13th or 14th centuries. In 1536 St Riquier repulsed an attack by the Germans, the women especially distinguishing themselves. In 1544 it was burnt by the English, an event which marks the beginning of its decline.

See Henocque, "Hist. de l'abbaye et de la ville de St Riquier," in Mem. soc. antiq. Picardie. Documents inedits, ix.-xi. (Paris, 1880-1888).