Recently in my article debunking the claim that the prominent French philosopher and jurist Jean Bodin was jewish; (1) I also noted that the jewish historian Leon Roth made the claim in 1928 that the prominent seventeenth century French mathematician Guillaume de l’Hopital – famous for publishing the first textbook on infinitesimal calculus and creating the mathematical theorem named L’Hopital’s rule – was also jewish.
Roth stated that:
‘It is noteworthy that, like Montaigne and L’Hopital, Bodin had one Jewish parent.’ (2)
The problem with Roth’s claim however is simple enough.
There’s no actual evidence for that I can find – I presume it was originally just a speculative history theory that Roth has dishonestly presented as a ‘proven fact’ the same way that Bodin’s alleged jewishness seems to have been – since – as the University of St. Andrew’s explains – we know quite a lot about L’Hopital ancestry which was decidedly aristocratic.
They write that:
‘To give Guillaume de l’Hôpital’s full name would take a whole paragraph so we give just a much shortened version: Guillaume-François-Antoine Marquis de l’Hôpital, Marquis de Sainte-Mesme, Comte d’Entremont and Seigneur d’Ouques-la-Chaise.
The family had been a prominent one in France over many generations going back to around the 12th century. There are various spellings of the name Hôpital, the earlier versions being l’Hopital or Lhopital with l’Hôpital being a relatively modern form of the name. His father was Anne-Alexandre de l’Hôpital, a Lieutenant-general in the King’s Army; he was Comte de Sainte-Mesme and Duc d’Orléans. Guillaume’s mother was Elisabeth Gobelin, the daughter of Claude Gobelin who was an Intendant in the King’s Army and a Councillor of State. Sturdy writes:
The prominent association which Anne-Alexandre de l’Hôpital had with the house of Orléans and the trust which Gaston d’Orléans placed in him conferred a brilliant lustre on the reputation of the l’Hôpitals; it also afforded them a protection second only to that of the king himself.’ (3)
Rice University’s ‘Galileo Project’ entry for L’Hopital agrees stating that his ancestry was as follows:
‘Anne de l’Hopital, lieutenant general of the armies of the king and squire of Gaston, Duke of Orleans. Guillaume’s mother, Elisabeth, was the daughter of Claude Gobelin, administrator (intendant) of the armies of the king and a counsellor of state. The l’Hopitals were an old aristocratic family with distinguished service to the king since 1488.’ (4)
Simply put despite Roth’s claim there is no evidence that I can find to suggest that L’Hopital had any jewish ancestry whatsoever.
References
(1) On this please see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/was-jean-bodin-jewish
(2) Leon Roth, 1928, ‘Jewish Thought in the Modern World’, p. 444 in Edwyn Bevan, Charles Singer (Eds.),1928, ‘The Legacy of Israel’, 1st Edition, Clarendon Press: Oxford
(3) https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/De_LHopital/
(4) https://galileo.library.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/lhopital.html
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