Drioux, abbé 1820-1898

Abbé Claude-Joseph Drioux (17 February 1820 – 13 May 1898) was a French priest, popular educator, cartographer, geographer, historian, and religious writer. Drioux was born 17 February 1820 at Bourdons, Haute-Marne. He was first priest, then professor at the seminary of Langres, vicar general, and finally a canon. Drioux was the "star author" of the publishers Belin. His 51 school textbooks enjoyed great vogue in France for over thirty years and some ran to 30 editions: "they almost had a monopoly on the education of children of both sexes in the free institutions both primary and secondary schools of our country". The total number of books sold exceeded one million. This author derived a steady income from Belin, allowing him to purchase the Chateau de Lanty-sur-Aube, Haute-Marne, Champagne, France, former property of the Marquise de Coligny, where he died 13 May 1898. As a religious writer and popular educator Drioux was influential among adults as well as schoolchildren, bringing the findings of German scholars to the popular French audience. His pictorial Bible (1864) and history of Rome (1876) contain many interpretations evidently sourced from contemporary German sources, but also renaissance sources such as Menochius. Perhaps independently, he identified the "five brothers" as the sons of Annas and the "rich man" as Caiaphas in the parable of Lazarus in Luke 16. As a geographer, Drioux worked primarily with cartographer Charles Leroy. As an editor of Latin theological works, he worked with a series of co-editors.