SAINTE-PALAYE, JEAN BAPTISTE LA CURNE (or Lacurne) DE (1697–1781), French scholar, was born at Auxerre on the 6th of June 1697. His father, Edme, had been gentleman of the bed-chamber to the duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV. Sainte-Palaye had a twin brother to whom he was greatly attached, refusing to marry so as not to be separated from him. For some time he held the same position under the regent Orleans as his father had under the duke of Orleans. He had received a thorough education in Latin and Greek, and had a taste for history. In 1724 he had been elected an associate of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, merely from his reputation, as nothing had been written by him before that date. From this time he devoted, himself exclusively to the work of this society. After having published numerous memoirs on Roman history, he began a series of studies on the chroniclers of the middle ages for the Historiens des Gaules et de la France (edited by Dom Bouquet): Raoul Glaber, Helgaud, the Gesta of Louis VII., the chronicle of Morigny, Rigord and his continuator, William le Breton, the monk of St Denis, Jean de Venette, Froissart and the Jouvencel. He made two journeys into Italy with his brother, the first in 1739–1740, accompanied by his compatriot, the president Charles de Brosses, who related many humorous anecdotes about the two brothers, particularly about Jean Baptiste, whom he called “the bilious Sainte-Palaye!” On returning from this tour he saw one of Joinville’s manuscripts at the house of the senator Fiorentini, well known in the history of the text of this pleasing memorialist. The manuscript was bought for the king in 1741 and is still at the Bibliothèque nationale. After the second journey (1749) Lacurne published a letter to de Brosses, on Le Goût dans les arts (1751). In this he showed that he was not only attracted by manuscripts, but that he could see and admire works of art. In 1759 he published the first edition of his Mémoires sur l’ancienne chevalerie, considérée comme un établissement politique et militaire, for which unfortunately he only used works of fiction and ancient stories as sources, neglecting the heroic poems which would have shown him the nobler aspects of this institution so soon corrupted by “courteous” manners; a second edition appeared at the time of his death (3 vols. 1781, 3rd ed. 1826). He prepared an edition of the works of Eustache Deschamps, which was never published, and also made a collection of more than a hundred volumes of extracts from ancient authors relating to French antiquities and the French language of the middle ages. His Glossaire de la langue française was ready in 1756, and a prospectus had been published, but the great length of the work prevented him finding a publisher. It remained in manuscript for morethan a century. In 1764 a collection of his manuscripts was bought by the government and after his death were placed in the king’s library; they are still there (fonds Moreau), with the exception of some which were given to the marquess of Paulmy in exchange, and were later placed in the Arsenal. Lacurne de Sainte-Palaye ceased work about 1771; the death of his brother was greatly felt by him, he became childish, and died on the 1st of March 1781.
Sainte-Palaye had been a member of the Académie Française since 1758. His life was written for this Académie by Chamfort and for the Academie des Inscriptions by Dupuy; both works are of no value. See, however, the biography of Lacurne, with a list of his published works and those in manuscript, at the beginning of the tenth and last volume of the Dictionnaire historique de l’ancien langage françois, ou glossaire de la langue françoise depuis son origine jusqu’au siècle de Louis XIV., published by Louis Favre (1875–1882).
SAINTES, a town of western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Charente-Inférieure, 47 m. S.E. of La Rochelle by the railway from Nantes to Bordeaux. Pop. (1906), town, 13,744; commune, 19,025. Saintes is pleasantly situated on the left bank of the Charente, which separates it from its suburb of Les Dames. It is of interest for its Roman remains, of which the best preserved is the triumphal arch of Germanicus, dating from the reign of Tiberius. This formerly stood on a Roman bridge destroyed in 1843, when it was removed and reconstructed on the right bank of the river. Ruins of baths and of an amphitheatre are also to be seen. The amphitheatre, larger than that of Nîmes, and in area surpassed only by the Coliseum, dates probably from the close of the 1st or the beginning of the 2nd century and was capable of holding 20,000 spectators. A Roman building known as the Capitol was destroyed after the capture of the town from the English by Charles of Alençon, brother of Philip of Valois, in 1330, and its site is occupied by a hospital. Saintes was a bishop’s see till 1790; the cathedral of St Peter, built in the first half of the 12th century, was rebuilt in the 15th century, and again after it had been almost destroyed by the Huguenots in 1568. The interior has now an unattractive appearance. The tower (15th century) is 236 ft. high. The church of St Eutropius (founded at the close of the 6th century, rebuilt in the 11th, and had its nave destroyed in the Wars of Religion) stands above a very interesting well-lighted crypt—the largest in France after that of Chartres—adorned with richly sculptured capitals and containing the tomb of St Eutropius (4th or 5th century). The fine stone spire dates from the 15th century. Notre-Dame, a splendid example of the architecture of the 11th and 12th centuries, with a noble clock tower, is no longer devoted to religious purposes. The old hotel de ville (16th and 18th centuries) contains a library, and the present hotel de ville a museum. Bernard Palissy, the porcelain-maker has a statue in the town, where he lived from 1542 to 1562. Small vessels ascend the river as far as Saintes, which carries on trade in grain, brandy and wine, has iron foundries, works of the state railway, and manufactures earthenware, tiles, &c.
Saintes (Mediolanum or Mediolanium), the capital of the Santones, was a flourishing town before Caesar’s conquest of Gaul; in the middle ages it was capital of the Saintonge. Christianity was introduced by St Eutropius, its first bishop, in the middle of the 3rd century. Charlemagne rebuilt its cathedral. The Normans burned the town in 845 and 854. Richard Coeur de Lion fortified himself within its walls against his father Henry II., who captured it after a destructive siege. In 1242 St Louis defeated the English under its walls and was received into the town. It was not, however, till the reign of Charles V. that Saintes was permanently recovered from the English. The Protestants did great damage during the Wars of Religion.
ST ÉTIENNE, an industrial town of east-central France, capital of the department of Loire, 310 m. S.S.E. of Paris and 36 m. S.S.W. of Lyons by rail. Pop. (1906), town, 130,940; commune, 146,788. St Étienne is situated on the Furens, which flows through it from S.E. to N.W., partly underground, and is an important adjunct to the silk manufacture. The town is uniformly built, its principal feature being the straight thoroughfare nearly 4 m. long which traverses it from N. to S. The chief of the squares is the Place Marengo, which has a statue of F. Garnier, the explorer, and is overlooked by the town hall and the prefecture, both modern. The church of St Étienne dates from the 15th century, and the Romanesque church of the abbey of Valbenoite is on the S.E. outskirts of the town. A valuable collection of arms and armour, a picture gallery, industrial collections, and a library with numerous manuscripts are in the Palais des Arts. St Étienne is the seat of a prefect, and has an important school of mining, and schools of music, chemistry and dyeing, &c.
The town owes its importance chiefly to the coal-basin which extends between Firminy and Rive-de-Gier over an area 20 m. long by 5 m. wide, and IS second only to those of Nord and Pas-de-Calais in France. There are concessions giving employment to some 18,000 workmen and producing annually between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 tons. The mineral is of two kinds—smelting coal, said to be the best in France, and gas coal. There are manufactures of ribbons, trimmings and other goods made from silk and mixtures of cotton and silk. This industry dates from the early 17th century, is carried on chiefly in small factories (electricity supplying the motive power), and employs at its maximum some 50,000 hands. The attendant industry of dyeing is carried on ona large scale. The manufacture of steel and iron and of heavy iron goods such as armour-plating occupies about 3000 workmen, and about half that number are employed in the production of ironmongery generally. Weaving machinery, cycles, automobiles and agricultural implements are also made. The manufacture of fire-arms, carried on at the national factory under the direction of artillery officers, employs at busy times more than 10,000 men, and can turn out 480,000 rifles in the year. Private firms, employing 4500 hands, make both military rifles and sporting-guns, revolvers, &c. To these industries must be added the manufacture of elastic fabrics, glass, cartridges, liqueurs, hemp-cables, &c.
