Ange De St. Joseph, Le Pere

, a barefoot carmelite of Toulouse, whose real name was La Brosse, lived a long while in Persia in quality of apostolic missionary: the liberty he enjoyed in that country, gave him an opportunity to acquire the language. He was also provincial of his order in Languedoc, and died at Perpignan in 1697. The knowledge he had acquired in the East, induced him to undertake a Latin translation of the Persian Pharmacopoeia, which appeared at Paris in 1681, 8vo. There is also by him, “Gazophylacium linguee Persarum,” Amst. 1684, fol. He there explains the terms in Latin, in French, and in Italian, in order that his book may be of service to the enlightened nations of Europe in general. His reputation as a Persian scholar was considerably great in his own country, until our learned Dr. Hyde published his “Castigatio in Angelum a St. Joseph, alias dictum de la Brosse.” The reason of this castigation was, that La Brosse had attacked the Persian gospels in the English Polyglot, and the Latin version of them by Dr. Samuel Clarke. Dr. Hyde immediately wrote a letter to him, in which he expostulated with him, and pointed out his mistakes, but received no answer. At length, in 1688, La Brosse came over to England, went to Oxford, and procured an introduction to Dr. Hyde, without letting him know who he was, although he afterwards owned his name to be La Buosse, and that he came over to justify what he had advanced. After a short dispute, which he carried on in Latin, he began to speak the Persian language, in which he was surprised to find Dr. Hyde more fluent than himself. Finding, however, that he could not defend what he had asserted, he took his leave with a promise to return, and either defend it, or acknowledge his error; but, as he performed neither, Dr. Hyde | published the “Castigatio.” Iti this he first states La Brosse’s objections, then shews them to be weak and trifling, and arising from his ignorance of the true idiom of the Persian tongue. As to his “Pharmacopoeia,” Hyde proves that it was really translated by father Mattmeu, whose name La Brosse suppressed, and yet had not the courage to place his own, unless in Persian characters, on the title. This appears to have sunk his reputation very considerably in France. 1

1

Dict. Hist.orique. Biog. Universelle.- Biog. Britannica, art. Hyd.