Blaise Gisbert

Who was Blaise Gisbert?

Blaise Gisbert was a French Jesuit rhetorician and critic.

Gisbert was born in Cahors. Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1672, he taught the humanities, rhetoric, and philosophy, after which he devoted himself for a long time to preaching. The pleasure which Gisbert took in discussing pulpit eloquence with Nicolas de Lamoignon, the intendant of Languedoc, impelled him to write an essay on sacred eloquence, which he entitled Le bon gôut de l'éloquence chrétienne. He spent ten years in retouching this essay, and augmented it considerably by adding to the rules examples drawn from Holy Scripture and the Church Fathers, especially St. John Chrysostom. The second edition appeared in Lyons in 1715 under the title L'Eloquence chrétienne dans l'idée et dans la pratique. The work, which comprises twenty-three chapters, does not follow the rigorous order of a didactical treatise and is without the dryness of a scholastic manual. It has been called "un livre éloquent sur l'éloquence". It contains a series of talks on the faults to be avoided in the matter and form of sermons, on oratorical action and decorum.