Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne
Chimney sweep, soldier, then priest: the father of poetry in patois (1826–1910)
Abbé Cerlogne is the first great poet in the Aosta Valley patois. He also wrote its grammar and its dictionary. His name remains linked to the school competition that keeps the patois alive.
A youth far from the valley
Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne was born on 6 March 1826 in Saint-Nicolas, in the hamlet of Cerlogne, whose name he bears. Like many mountain children, he left very young, in 1837, for Marseille. There he worked as a chimney sweep, then as a kitchen assistant.
Back home, he became a soldier and fought at Goito, during the first Italian war of independence.
From seminary to poetry: the cook who became a poet
In 1851 he joined the Great Seminary of Aosta as a cook. Canon Bérard noticed his talent and, around 1855, encouraged him to write in patois. Cerlogne resumed his studies and became a priest in 1864. As curate in Pontboset, he received a civil merit medal for his devotion during the cholera epidemic of 1866.
A first collection of his poems was published in Aosta in 1889.
Putting the local language in writing
Abbé Cerlogne also wanted to give the patois written rules. He published a Petite grammaire du dialecte valdôtain (1893), then a Dictionnaire du patois valdôtain (1907) and a study of its origin and spelling (1909).
He died in his presbytery in Saint-Nicolas on 4 October 1910. A bronze bust was unveiled there in 1914. The Cerlogne museum, created later in the village by René Willien, pays tribute to him.
Sources: Regional Bureau for Ethnology and Linguistics (patoisvda.org); Treccani.
Personal photos by Marc Badjou.
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