Françoise Gilberte Périer | |
|---|---|
.jpg.webp) Portrait of Gilberte Périer, Mandet Museum, Riom, France | |
| Born | Françoise Gilberte Pascal 1 January 1620 Clermont-Ferrand, France |
| Died | 25 April 1687 Paris, France |
| Occupation | Biographer |
| Known for | Pensées de Pascal |
| Children | 6 |
| Parent |
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Françoise Gilberte Périer (1 January 1620 in Clermont-Ferrand – 25 April 1687 in Paris) was a French biographer and the older sister of Blaise Pascal whose biography she wrote.
Biography
Françoise Gilberte Pascal was the eldest of three surviving children born to Antoinette Begon and mathematician Étienne Pascal. Her paternal grandfather was Martin Pascal, treasurer of France.
When Gilberte's mother died in 1626, her father moved the family to Paris and employed a governess, Louise Delfault, to bring up his children. However, Étienne chose to educate them himself.[1][2][3] In Paris, Gilberte ran her father's household for years before following him to a new position in Rouen.
There, in June 1641, Gilberte married Florin Périer, a lawyer at the Supreme Tax Court in Clermont-Ferrand. He was not only a colleague of her father Étienne, but he was also her cousin. Her marriage produced four daughters (Marguerite Périer, born 1646, and Jacqueline (1644–1696), Marie (1647–1649), Louise (1651–1713)) and two sons (Blaise (1653–1684) and Étienne (1642–1680)).[3][4]
In 1646, like her husband, she had a religious conversion to Jansenism, a separatist movement in Roman Catholicism, and sent her children to Port-Royal Abbey, Paris to be educated. Increasingly, Gilberte withdrew from public life and later chose to live in solitude. Her religiosity was, however, of a gentler nature than that of her better-known younger sister, Jacqueline Pascal.[2]
Gilberte was exceptionally well educated, studied philosophy and theology, was known for her eloquence and spoke several languages. Pascal made her his executor, and in 1670 she published the Pensées de Pascal (Thoughts of Pascal). However, despite their efforts, the text was not printed unchanged. In 1663 she published biographies of Pascal and her sister, Jacqueline. Gilberte also helped Pascal prepare his Apologie de la religion chrétienne (Apology of the Christian Religion) from which he drew the Pensées.[2][4]
References
- ↑ "Étienne Pascal - Biography". Maths History. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
- 1 2 3 Richmond, Lisa (1998). The composition, publication, and influence of Gilberte Périer’s La Vie de Monsieur Pascal (Thesis). University of British Columbia.
- 1 2 Pouzet, Régine. "Gilberte Pascal entre ses débiteurs et ses créanciers-1672-1687. Histoire du patrimoine Périer–Pascal d’après les Archives Départementales du Puy-de-Dôme." Courrier du Centre International Blaise-Pascal 10 (1988): 12-24.
- 1 2 "Gilberte Périer (1620-1687)". data.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 2023-04-28.