I already knew that Jean de Menasce dedicated his edition and translation of the 9^th century Zoroastrian theological text Škand-Gumānīk Vičār to Émile Benveniste. Benveniste had taught de Menasce Iranian languages, especially Pahlavi, in the late 1930s at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. 

In the preface, de Menasce wrote:

M. Émile Benveniste, who recently introduced me to Iranian studies, did not limit himself to giving me encouragement: he agreed to read this work in proof and to enrich it with valuable suggestions. I wanted to dedicate it to my friend as much as my teacher, without however burdening him with the responsibility for my imperfections (p. 16).

The book was published in 1945, and de Menasce wrote the tribute: “A M. Emile Benveniste/ au maître et à l’ami” – “to Mr Emile Benveniste, to master and friend” (p. iii). The book had been completed in the last years of the Second World War, when Benveniste was staying in Fribourg, Switzerland, where de Menasce taught at the University. The preface is dated 15 September 1944 at Fribourg, about a month before Benveniste left the town. The story of how de Menasce helped Benveniste to escape France and then Benveniste’s time in Fribourg, where he worked at the University and Cantonal library, is something I am exploring in detail elsewhere.

Long out of print, there is a copy of de Menasce’s translation available on archive.org

The Sprachwissenschaft Bibliothek of the Universität Berne has Benveniste’s personal library, sold to them through the mediation of Georges Redard. The copy of the Škand-Gumānīk Vičār there has a handwritten addition to the printed dedication.

The amended dedication there reads:

A M. Emile Benveniste

  au maître et à l’ami,

    en témoignage d’une amitié

    placée sous le signe du 

      “gaudium de veritate”

      et en souvenir d’année d’exil

            fr. P. de Menasce O.P.

Noel 1944 

“To M. Emile Benveniste to master and friend, as a token of friendship placed under the sign of ‘joy from the truth’ and in memory of the year of exile, brother P. de Menasce O.P., Christmas 1944”.

The Latin phrase “gaudium de veritate” comes from Saint Augustine and is the motto of several Catholic universities. O.P. is the religious order of which de Menasce was a member – the Ordre des Prêcheurs, better known as the Dominicans. The initial P. in his name is because he sometimes went by Pierre, a name I think he adopted when he converted to Catholicism. This book is credited to “P. Pierre Jean de Menasce”, but other books just to Jean.

Benveniste left Switzerland on 11 October 1944, a couple of months after Paris had been liberated but before Germany’s defeat. The book being sent at Christmas 1944 is a little sign of the enduring friendship between them, and another indication of Benveniste’s time in Switzerland in the war.

References

Une apologétique mazdéenne du IXe siècle: Škand Gumānīk Vičār: La solution décisive des doutes, trans and ed. P. Pierre Jean de Menasce, Fribourg: Librairie de l’Université Fribourg en Suisse, 1945.

Émile Benveniste library, Sprachwissenschaft Bibliothek, Universität Berne

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This note is in the same style as the ‘Sunday histories‘ posts, though its minor status means I’ve posted it mid-week.