Delille, an abbé and a teacher, translated Virgil's Georgics in 1769. Voltaire, who did not know whose text it was, was struck by it and recommended him to the Académie française, which he entered five years later. His poem Des jardins — The Gardens — brought him European fame in 1782. Brongniart, who had designed this cemetery, signed his monument, and one of its avenues bears his name.
The story
Jacques Delille has for the architect of his tomb the very man who designed the cemetery: Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart. Few graves in Père-Lachaise bear the hand of its creator, and the avenue running alongside this one carries the poet's name.
Born in Clermont-Ferrand on 22 June 1738, the natural son of a lawyer, the abbé Delille taught at the collège de Beauvais, then at Amiens, then at the collège de la Marche in Paris. In 1770 he published his verse translation of Virgil's Georgics, the Latin poem of life on the land; Voltaire ranked it among the two finest poems that had ever honoured France. Elected to the Académie française as early as 1772, he was kept out by the Maréchal de Richelieu, who judged him too young; he entered it for good in 1774. His great poem Les Jardins, in 1782, brought him a European reputation.
He died in the night of 1 May 1813, a month before Brongniart. The stone in Division 11 carries only his name, cut on the front and on the back: “Jacques DELILLE”. It is the avenue beside it that says the rest, and the City of Paris that maintains the plot, free of charge, two centuries on.
The grave
A grave whose architect is Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart (1739-1813) — the man who designed Père-Lachaise, who died the same year as the poet. The inscription runs to two words, carved on the front and on the back: “Jacques DELILLE”. Neither the Académie, nor Virgil, nor Des jardins. The cemetery's avenue bears his name, and the plot is maintained free of charge by the City of Paris.
On site, do not miss
Find the grave by the street sign of the avenue Delille, which runs alongside it. The monument's architect is Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, who designed the cemetery itself.
Visitors' questions
Where is the Abbé Delille's grave?
In Division 11, on the avenue Delille, first row: the cemetery path carries his name. The grave was designed by Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, the architect of Père-Lachaise itself. The plot is maintained by the City.
Frédéric ChopinHow did he enter the Académie?
Through Voltaire: struck by his translation of Virgil's Georgics, published in 1769, and without knowing whose it was, Voltaire recommended him. Delille was admitted to the Académie française in 1774.
Stanislas de BoufflersWho designed his grave?
Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart (1739-1813), the architect of the cemetery himself — dead in the same year as the poet. Few graves at Père-Lachaise can claim the hand of the man who conceived the place.
Alexandre-Théodore BrongniartWhat was his greatest success?
Des jardins, in 1782: the poem brought him immense fame across the whole of Europe. He had taught before that at the colleges of Beauvais, Amiens and Paris, and translated Virgil.
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