As Eloge is usually a eulogy and the exuberant praise as well as rarely the flattery. Such an eloge may be in the form of an address, but also a written statement. It is distinguished by compliments and honorable words. In most cases it is positively evaluated and can be used synonymously to the terms praise, anthem, laudation and eulogy. Rarely is the term negatively used to refer to a form of exaggerated flattery, even if this interpretation is also possible. In France in the seventeenth century, there was also a rhetorical discipline, known as the Éloges, which were held in the form of an obituary to the deceased members of the Académie des Sciences as a public tribute to the tomb, and mostly by their successors.
The term is derived from the French noun éloge, which can be translated with praise, praise, or eulogy, and can be traced back to the Latin elogium, which means the saying, the statement or the inscription, which in turn is derived from the ancient Greek eulogia (εὐλογία) for good Speech or eulogy. Consequently, all translations refer to what is at stake.
However, the terms eloge and elogium should not be used synonymously. Although the Elogium also refers to a form of eulogy – mostly to a deceased – in the literature is used above all as a praiseworthy inscription on tombstones. In prose or verse (cf. Epigram) the deeds of the deceased were reported, the Elogium also being regarded as an art practice of rhetoric.
The terms Laudatio, Panegyrikus and Enkomion are also related, whereby the laudation can be used almost synonymously. The Panegyrikus is rather a splendid speech for a festive occasion, whereas an Enkomion is also a praise or eulogy, but mostly narrates of heroes and mythical beings, or a solemn song in honor of a human being.
Fontenelle and the Eloge
Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657-1757), an important and versatile French writer of the Enlightenment (cf. Literaturepochen), decisively advanced in the 17th century that such Éloges became a rhetorical discipline and wrote various eulogies to different persons.
In 1697, Fontenelle became a member of the Académie des Sciences, which was founded in 1666 and brought together important scientists from various disciplines. Their main task was to promote research in different disciplines and to record the findings and thus to keep them for posterity. Fontanelle succeeded Jean-Baptiste Du Hamel as successor to Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle on a portrait of Louis Galloche (1670-1761)
Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle on a portrait of Louis Galloche (1670-1761)
Fontenelle was particularly active in the Académie des Sciences: he wrote numerous laudationes, the so-called éloges académiques, on numerous researchers, academics and academics, presenting his work and works with an elegant expression style, but to use exclusively honorable and praiseworthy words.
The personalities whom Fontenelle appreciated in his eloquence were also presented to a wide audience, although he ceased all other literary activity during this time. Thus, he wrote eulogies for Pierre Varignon (1722), Alexis Littre (1725), and Louis Carré (1711). All the elogenes Fontenelles can be viewed at the Académie des Sciences (see: academie-sciences.fr).
Short overview: The most important part of the term at a glance
As eloge is usually a eulogy or the exuberant praise as well as seldom the flattery, whereby it can be in the form of a speech, thus speech, but also as a written statement. The term is usually connotated positively.
Such elogenes are characterized by honorable words and compliments about a particular person. What is essential here is that it is actually the praise of ebendieser person, which is why negative formulations or even bad is avoided and only honorable aspects from life are named. Often these are obituaries.
In eighteenth-century France, Elogen was also regarded as a rhetorical discipline, primarily by the Enlightenment writer Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, who, in his work for the Académie des Sciences, wrote numerous laudationes on former members of the Academy. Fontenelle is also regarded as a type of philosophe characteristic of the epoch of enlightenment, which means that he was interested in all things and wrote belletristic, philosophical, and scientific works.