Morel

Morel, the surname of several French classical scholars and printers in the 16th and 17th centuries, known for their editions of classical authors and the Fathers. (I) Guillaume Morel (1505-1564) was born at Tilleul in Normandy. After acting as proof-reader in a Paris firm, he set up for himself, and subsequently succeeded Turnebus as king's printer in 1555. His most important work was Thesaurus vocum omnium latinarum, containing a number of quotations from Greek authors, taken from hitherto unpublished MSS. in the Paris library. (2) Federic (as he always called himself, not Frederic) Morel, surnamed the Elder (1523-1583), was born in Champagne. He was of noble family, and was not connected with Guillaume Morel. About 1550 he married the daughter of the famous printer, Michel de Vascosan, in 1557 set up in business in the rue Saint Jean de Beauvais, and in 1571 was appointed printer to the king. His chief publications were the Declamationes  of Quintilian and L' Architecture de Philibert Delorme. (3) Federic Morel, son of the preceding, surnamed the Younger (1558-1630), was one of the greatest Greek scholars of his time. In addition to the management of his father's business, to which he succeeded, he held the professorship of eloquence at the College de France. The number of his translations and commentaries on the Fathers and classical authors (Aristotle, Dio Chrysostom, Strabo) was very large; special mention may be made of his revised edition of Amyot's translation of Plutarch  and his Latin translations of some of the dissertations of Maximus of Tyre, of Libanius, Hierocles and Theodoret. His commentary on the Psalms is still considered valuable. (4) CLAUDE Morel (1574-1626), brother of the preceding, also published editions of many of the Fathers and other authors, with learned prefaces and notes. (5) CHARLES Morel (1602-1640) was printer and secretary to the king. He followed the example of the other members of his family, and issued the works of Clement of Alexandria, Gregory of Nazianzus, Cyril, Synesius and Chrysostom, and the Concilia generalia et provincialia  of the German theologian Severin Bini. (6) GILLES Morel, brother of the preceding (the dates of his birth and death are unknown), was the last representative of this learned family. The number of his publications was small, but some of them were of great importance, the chief being the Grande bibliotheque des peres, in 17 folio vols. (1643).

See M. Maittaire, Historia typographorum aliquot parisiensium  (1717), for all the above; Federic Morel the elder is the subject of a monograph by J. Dumoulin (Paris, 1901).