Claude-François Ménestrier

Who was Claude-François Ménestrier?

Claude-François Ménestrier was a French heraldist, a member of the Society of Jesus [Jesuit], and attendant of the royal court.

Ménestrier was born in Lyon. He put together numerous books on heraldry, and was one of the greatest heraldic authorities of his age. Ménestrier was the professor of the colleges in Chambéry, Vienne, Grenoble, and Lyon. During 1669-70 he traveled to Germany and Italy, but reached Paris and lived there to his death. He was the most widely known heraldist of his time, and was from 1622 in close correspondence with Philipp Jakob Spener, the founder of the German scientific heraldry who refused the merely symbolic interpretation of arms. Ménestrier maintained that we can know the essence of heraldry only from the sources from the age of living heraldry, but he was also influenced by the heraldic view of his age. Thus, his researches were abortive.