Placide Cappeau

Who was Placide Cappeau?

Placide Cappeau was a French poet and the author of the well-known poem, "Minuit, chrétiens", which was set to music by Adolphe Adam. He was born on 25 October 1808 at 8 p.m. in Roquemaure. He was the son of Mathieu Cappeau, a cooper, and Agathe Louise Martinet.

From the beginning, he was destined to follow his father in the family business; but after an accident, he turned to the life of an academic. The accident occurred when he was eight years old, while "playing" with his friend Brignon. The young Brignon was handling a gun and shot Cappeau in the hand. This led to the young Cappeau having to undergo an amputation of his hand. Thanks to the financial support from Mr Brignon who supplied half of tuition, Placide Cappeau was able to attend a town school and was accepted into the Collège Royal d’Avignon. While there, in spite of his disability, he was awarded the first prize in drawing in 1825.

After studying in Nîmes, where he received a baccalauréat littéraire, he studied law in Paris and was awarded a license to practice law in 1831.

Following in his father's footsteps, to an extent, he became a merchant of wines and spirits. However, his focus in life was literature.