Jacques Augustin RENOUARD
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Silk and gauze merchant, Parisian manufacturer.
Renouard traded in and manufactured, on the rue Sainte-Apolline, two fabrics that eighteenth-century Paris fought over: gauze and silk. His success paid for the career of his son Antoine-Augustin, who became one of the great bibliophiles of the Empire. His epitaph grants him what few employers ever obtained: it declares him worthy of being called the father of his workers. His dates are given there in Roman numerals.
The story
In the rue Sainte-Apolline he traded and manufactured gauze and silk: two of the sought-after cloths of eighteenth-century Paris, where luxury dress kept whole districts in work.
Born at Guise in 1736, Jacques Augustin Renouard built there a commercial success his son would put to quite another use: Antoine-Augustin Renouard became one of the most celebrated bibliographers and book collectors of the Empire. The father's silk paid for the son's library.
He died in 1806. His epitaph, in Division 22, grants him a title few stones grant an employer: “par sa bienfaisance, mérita le nom de père de ses ouvriers” — by his kindness he earned the name of father to his workmen. It cuts his dates in Roman numerals and says he came from Guise.
The grave
A stone on the chemin de la Citerne, which he shares with his wife Marie Simone Oyon, and whose epitaph praises the manufacturer before the man: he “raised by his genius to the highest point of prosperity a kind of manufacture that was almost nothing before him”, he “made foreign countries tributary to his industry”, and “by his beneficence, earned the name of father of his workers”. The dates are cut in Roman numerals, and the stone says he came from Guise, in Picardy.
On site, do not miss
Read the epitaph in full: it says of an employer that he “earned the name of father of his workers”. Division 22 is also home to the monument of Gustave Doré.
Visitors' questions
Where is Jacques Augustin Renouard's grave at Père-Lachaise?
In Division 22, Chemin de la Citerne, third row. The grave bears a long epitaph and also holds his wife, Marie Simone Oyon. Division 22 is also home to Gustave Doré's monument.
Gustave DORÉWhat does Jacques Augustin Renouard's gravestone say?
A tribute both commercial and moral. The inscription calls him a “manufacturer of silk fabrics”, claims that “through his genius he raised to the height of prosperity a branch of manufacture that was almost nothing before him”, that “he made foreign markets tributary to his industry”, and that he earned “the name of father to his workers”.
Karel APPELWhat did Jacques Augustin Renouard manufacture?
Gauze and silk, on Rue Sainte-Apolline. Sent to Paris as a boy to work for an uncle who manufactured fabrics, he applied a new process for spinning silk gauze in the early 1780s and, in 1785, won the title of Royal Manufactory.
Charles AMOUROUXWhy has the Renouard name endured?
Through the son rather than the father. Antoine-Augustin Renouard, born in 1765, became one of the most celebrated bibliographers and book collectors of the Empire — a career his father's fortune made possible.
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