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[1] from a mixture of native herbs and exotic spices.Born in Fécamp as the son of a sea captain,[2] 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.

In recognition of his achievements, Le Grand was made an Officer of the Legion of Honor,[4] 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.

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.

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.

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!

In 1882, the year of its entry into the Bourse,[7] the enterprise opened a new distillery to boost its production from 350,000 bottles annually to almost a million, driven by the Second Empire fondness for liqueurs.

An eclectic, Le Grand also brought together several collections of paintings, statues, pieces of metalwork, enamels, tapestries, ivories, coins, illuminated manuscripts, and stained glass.

He housed this vast collection in a colossal palace-cum-factory – the Palais Bénédictine – built by Camille Albert, then architect of the city, a disciple of Viollet-le-Duc.