Stamps of France: Jean-Jacques Renouard

 JEAN-JACQUES RENOUARD

(24 June 1607 – 5 March 1691)

Jean-Jacques Renouard, seigneur de Villayer, born in Nantes and died in Paris, France, was a member of the French Conseil d'État, which had been delegated special legal authorities by the absolutist reigning King Louis XIV.

In 1653 as the tenant of the Paris City Post, Renouard de Villayer ordered letter boxes to be set up at different places in Paris. Letters, prepaid with a uniform postage of 1 sol, could be put in these boxes and were then delivered inside of the city within the same day.

The receipts (billet de port payé), which were issued for this purpose and had to be attached to the letters as postage, are considered to be early precursors of the postage stamp. There are no examples still existing today. The so-called Petite Poste was an economic failure, but was later successfully imitated in other European cities (for example by the London Penny Post as of 1680).

In 1659, Renouard de Villayer became a member of the Académie française, succeeding Abel Servien.

In 1944, the family coat-of-arms of Renouard de Villayer was depicted on a commemorative stamp by the French post on the occasion of the Day of the Postage Stamp.

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Stamps of France: Saint-Denis Cathedral

CATHEDRAL OF SAINT-DENIS

The Cathedral of Saint-Denis, French: Cathédrale royale de Saint-Denis, or simply Basilique Saint-Denis (previously the Abbaye de Saint-Denis) is a large medieval abbey church in the commune of Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris. The abbey church was created a cathedral in 1966 and is the seat of the Bishop of Saint-Denis. The building is of unique importance historically and architecturally.

Founded in the 7th century by Dagobert I on the burial place of Saint Denis, a patron saint of France, the church became a place of pilgrimage and the burial place of the French Kings, nearly every king from the 10th to the 18th centuries being buried there, as well as many from the previous centuries. It was not used for the coronations of kings, this role being designated to the Cathedral of Reims; however, queens were commonly crowned there.

"Saint-Denis" soon became the abbey church of a growing monastic complex. In the 12th century the Abbot Suger rebuilt portions of the abbey church using innovative structural and decorative features that were drawn from a number of other sources. In doing so, he is said to have created the first truly Gothic building.

The basilica's 13th century nave is also the prototype for the Rayonnant Gothic style, and provided an architectural model for cathedrals and abbeys of northern France, England and other countries.

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