Pierre-Joseph-Justin Bernard
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Pierre-Joseph-Justin Bernard (26 August 1708 – 1 November 1775), called Gentil-Bernard by Voltaire for the measured grace of his discreetly erotic verses, was a French military man and salon poet with the reputation of a rake, the author of several libretti for Rameau. Mme de Pompadour arranged to have him appointed a royal librarian, at the château de Choisy.
He was born in Grenoble. He received a Jesuit education at Lyon and joined the staff of Marshal François de Franquetot de Coigny, rising to become the Marshal's chief secretary. His libretto for Jean-Philippe Rameau's Castor et Pollux (1737), a resounding success, rendered him fashionable in the salons. He translated Ovid's Ars amatoria (L'Art de l'Amour).
For Rameau Bernard also provided libretti for the operas Les surprises de l'Amour (1748) and Anacréon (1757).
His poem "Ô! Fontenay" was set as a romance by Joseph Denis Doche.
He died at Choisy-le-Roi in 1775.
