Claude-François Ménestrier was a Frenchheraldist, a member of the Society of Jesus , and attendant of the royal court. Ménestrier was born in Lyon. He composed numerous books on heraldry, in which he was one of the greatest authorities of his age, the professor of the colleges in Chambéry, Vienne, Grenoble, and Lyon. During 1669-70 he traveled to Germany and Italy, but reached Paris and lived there to his death. He was the most widely known heraldist of his time, and was from 1622 in close correspondence with Philipp Jakob Spener, the founder of the German scientific heraldry who refused the merely symbolic interpretation of arms. Ménestrier maintained that we can know the essence of heraldry only from the sources from the age of living heraldry but he was also influenced by the heraldic view of his age. Thus, his researches were abortive. Ménestrier's essays "On Ancient and Modern Musical Productions" and "On Ancient and Modern Ballets, After The Rules of Theatre" were influential in the development of ballet as a dramatic concert dance style capable of expressing a wide range of emotion and narrating a complex story, drawing upon accounts of ancient Roman pantomime. Ménestrier was also a numismatist and antiquary. In 1689 he published his Histoire du Roy Louis le Grand par les médailles. emblêmes, devises, jettons, inscriptions, armoiries, et autres monumens publics. The book was the first antiquarian history of a modern individual, and largely used medals drawn from the collection of Père François de la Chaise. It also covered jettons and heraldic devices. Unfortunately for Ménestrier a pirated 1691 Dutch edition included five pages of anti-Louis medals, harming Ménestrier's position at court.
Works
, Lyon, Jean Molin, 1658
Le véritable art du blason et l'origine des armoiries, Lyon, Benoît Coral, 1659
, Lyon, Benoît Coral, 1660
Abbrégé méthodique des principes héraldiques, ou du Véritable art du blason, Lyon, Benoît Coral, 1661
, Lyon, Benoît Coral, 1662
Éloge historique de la Ville de Lyon et sa grandeur consulaire sous les romains & sous nos rois, Lyon, Benoît Coral, 1669
, Lyon, Jean Muguet, 1669
, Lyon, Benoît Coral, 1672
Les diverses especes de noblesse, et les manieres d'en dresser les preuves, Paris, Amaulry et Guignard, 1681
Lettre d'un gentilhomme de province à une dame de qualité, au sujet de la comète, Paris, Michallet, 1681
Histoire du règne de Louis-Le-Grand par les médailles, emblèmes, devises, jetons, inscriptions, armoiries et autres monuments publics, Paris, B. Nolin, 1689
La Nouvelle méthode raisonnée du blason, pour l'apprendre d'une manière aisée, réduite en leçons par demandes et par réponses, Lyon, Amaulry, 1696
Décorations faites dans la ville de Grenoble, pour la réception de Mgr le duc de Bourgogne et de Mgr le duc de Berry, avec des réflexions et des remarques sur la pratique et les usages des décorations, Grenoble, A. Fremon, 1701
