Jean Le Fèvre

Jean Le Fèvre (also Jehan Lefèvre; 1493–1565) was a French canon, translator, and lexicographer from Dijon. He is known for producing an early French verse translation of Andrea Alciato’s emblem book and for compiling a rhyming dictionary later published and expanded by his nephew Étienne Tabourot.

Life Le Fèvre was born in Dijon in 1493 and became a canon at Langres; later title-pages of works associated with him also describe him as a canon of Bar-sur-Aube. It has been described as the first French version of Alciato’s emblems.

Dictionnaire des rimes françoises (posthumous) Le Fèvre compiled a rhyming dictionary that appeared posthumously in 1572 (and was reissued in expanded form in 1587), edited and augmented by his nephew Étienne Tabourot (Seigneur des Accords). A study of early French lexicography describes the Dictionnaire des rimes as the first dictionary of the French language and argues that the published form of the work largely reflects Tabourot’s editorial intervention.

The same study notes that Le Fèvre died in 1565 before he could publish a separate Inventaire ou répertoire de mots français (an inventory or repertory of French words).