Philippe de La Canaye, sieur de
Fresnes (1551–27 February 1610)[1][2] was a French jurist and diplomat.
Life
He was born in Paris, son of an advocate of the
Parlement; he was brought up liberally and allowed to choose his beliefs, which became
Calvinist. He travelled aged 15 in Germany and Italy and to
Istanbul. He then took up the law and became prominent at the bar of the Parlement.
Under
Henry III of France he purchased a position as councillor.
Henry IV sent him as ambassador to England (1586), Switzerland (1588) and to Germany.
He was président de la chambre at
Castres in 1595; and in 1600 Henry IV made him arbiter at the
Fontainebleau conferences between Cardinal
Jacques Du Perron for the Catholics, and
Philippe Duplessis-Mornay for the Protestants. He became a Catholic convert in 1601.
From 1602 he was ambassador at
Venice; at the time of the
Venetian Interdict he skilfully resolved differences of the Republic with
Pope Paul V, who showed gratitude. He died in Paris.
Works
He left an account of his embassies, memoirs (1635), and a work on the Organon of
Aristotle (1589).
Extrait des Lettres et ambassade, t. 3, livre 5, Paris, Étienne Richer, 1636
Lettres et ambassade de messire Philippe Canaye, seigneur de Fresne,... avec un sommaire de sa vie, et un récit particulier du procès criminel fait au maréchal de Biron, Paris, E. Richer, 1635-1636
L’Organe, c’est-à-dire l'instrument du discours, divisé en deux parties, sçavoir est, l’analytique, pour discourir véritablement, et la dialectique, pour discourir probablement. Le tout puisé de l'″Organe″ d'Aristote, Genève,
Jean de Tournes, 1589
Remonstrances et discours faicts et prononcez en la Cour et Chambre de l'édict establie à Castres d'Albigeois, pour le ressort de la Cour de Parlement de Tholose, par messire Philippe Canaye, seigneur de Fresnes,... et président en laditte Cour, Paris, J. Périer, 1598
Le Voyage du Levant : de Venise à Constantinople, l’émerveillement d’un jeune humaniste (1573), translation with notes by
Henri Hauser, Ferrières, Éd. de Poliphile, 1986
ISBN2-86888-009-6
References
^Jean-Chrétien-Ferdinand Hoefer (1857),
Nouvelle Biographie Générale, vol. 8, Paris: Firmin Didot frères (published 1855), pp. 442–3
^François-Alexandre Aubert de La Chesnaye-Desbois (1863),
Dictionnaire de la Noblesse, vol. 4 (3 ed.), Paris: Schlesinger frères (published 1864), pp. 649–50