Jean-Henri Fondeville

Jean-Henri Fondeville (Joan Enric de Fondevila according to Occitan classical norm; c. 1638 – October 22, 1705) was a Béarnese dialect writer using the Occitan language.
Fondevilleis the author of the comedy La pastourale deu paysaa qui cerque mestièe a soun hilh chens ne trouba a soun grat (La pastorala deu paisan qui cèrca mestier a son hilh shens ne trobar a son grat according to the classical norm) and also of Calvinisme de Bearn divisat en seis eglògas (Calvinisme de Bearn divisat en seis eglògas).

Fondeville was born after Béarn's integration into the French Kingdom in 1621.

Before this event Béarn has been an independent state and also the main part of the Kingdom of Navarre. When its Queen Jeanne d'Albret chose Calvinism, Navarre and Béarn became a Protestant kingdom that kept the use of Béarnese dialect as its administrative language. When Jeanne d'Albret's son (Henry III of Navarre) became Henry IV of France he maintained Navarre's independence as a Calvinist kingdom. His son, Louis XIII of France, decided to integrate Béarn into the French Kingdom and to reestablish Catholicism.

During this process, Fondeville's father, a Protestant priest, was offered a lifetime annuity in order to choose Catholicism. Fondeville's God father was Jean-Henri de Salette, bishop of Lescar (city in which he is buried under the Latin inscription Patronus et poeta facundus). Aside from being a writer, Jean-Henri Fondeville was also a lawyer.

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