Alexandre Le Grand (merchant)
Alexandre-Prosper-Hubert Le Grand (6 June 1830 – 25 June 1898) was a wine merchant and industrialist of the 19th century who in 1863 invented the liqueur known as Bénédictine from a mixture of native herbs and exotic spices. Biography Born in Fécamp as the son of a sea captain, Le Grand discovered, in 1863, an old grimoire in the library of the abbey of Fécamp containing medicinal and herbal recipes collected by the monks of the abbey. With the aid of a pharmacist, he developed the recipe for the liqueur that would make him famous. Inheriting a habit of eclecticism from his father, Alexandre Le Grand raised the Palais Bénédictine, a building whose architectural style was a mélange of Gothic, Renaissance, and art nouveau, and which in 1888 he made into the headquarters of the Bénédictine company. This building still exists and contains, in addition to the distillery, a museum dedicated to the liqueur. In recognition of his achievements, Le Grand was made an Officer of the Legion of Honor, captain of firefighters, a city councilor of Fécamp, a member of the general council of Seine-Maritime, and a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great. Bénédictine The modern history of Bénédictine liqueur begins in 1863, when Alexandre Legrand – an industrialist, a merchant in wine and spirits, and also an art collector – discovered in his family library a 16th-century grimoire belonging to the Benedictine abbey of Fécamp. The book would have belonged to his grandfather, Prosper Elie Couillard, a procureur fiscal who might have acquired it during the French Revolution. Some sources record that a healthful elixir of 27 herbs and spices was concocted by one Dom Bernardo Vincelli, a Venetian Benedictine of the Renaissance period who was alleged to have stayed at the abbey of Fécamp, but there exists no concrete record of Vincelli's existence. The mysterious monk may have been invented by Le Grand to anchor his liqueur's origins in the Renaissance. According to legend, the liqueur first gained a reputation outside the abbey when Francis I, during a visit to Fécamp, tasted the elixir and was said to have exclaimed: "Foy de gentilhomme! Oncques n'en goustai de meilleur!" ("On my honor! I have never tasted anything better!") However, this story is more myth than history, as there is no historical record of Francis' ever having visited Fécamp. Le Grand may have invented all these stories to buttress the popularity of his liqueur. The palace which he would later construct would represent these stories in large stained glass windows. Patiently Le Grand re-created the medicinal formula, marrying myrrh with juniper, saffron with lemon rind. The drink was sent to market in a distinctive bottle. But first, Le Grand played a new card: that of advertising. He persuaded several renowned artists to create posters and placards for placement in France and abroad. These artists included Alphonse Mucha, Sem, Lopes Silva, and even Louise Abbéma in 1899, with an oil-on-canvas titled La Renommée de la Bénédictine