PARMENTIER, JEAN, navigator, cartographer, and poet; b. 1494 at Dieppe; d. 1529 at sea, off the coast of Sumatra.

It is extremely difficult to prove, from the evidence available, whether or not Jean Parmentier actually came to Canada. According to Lanctot (Histoire du Canada, I, 112), Jean and his brother Raoul in 1520 loaded their boats with furs in the Cape Breton region. E. Guénin, however, in his Ango et ses pilotes (Paris, 1901) says only that c. 1510–20 Parmentier apparently made voyages to Newfoundland, as to other places, for the renowned shipowner Jean Ango. The brothers, moreover, kept the details of their route to the New World secret from all but their master. Although Jean was well known as a cartographer in his lifetime, none of his maps has survived and it is unlikely that, in any event, he entrusted his American secrets to them.

Jean and Raoul both died in 1529 on a voyage to the East Indies. The poet and astrologer, Pierre Crignon, who accompanied them on this expedition, published Jean Parmentier’s poem, “Traicté en forme d’exhortation contenant les merveilles de Dieu et de la dignité de l’homme” as well as his own “Déploration sur la mort desditz Parmentiers” in 1531 and his poem “Plainctes sur les trépas de Raoul et Jean Parmentier” ten years later.

Thomas Dunbabin