Arnauld de Oihenart was a Basque

Basque people

The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...

 historian and poet.

Born at Mauléon

Mauléon-Licharre

Mauléon-Licharre or simply Mauléon is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.It is the capital of the Soule historical French and Basque province.It is also home to the canvas shoe, the espadrille....

, he studied law at Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

, where he took his degree in 1612. He practised with Jeanne d'Erdoy, the heiress of a noble family of Saint-Palais

Saint-Palais

Saint-Palais is the name or part of the name of several communes in France:* Saint-Palais, Allier, in the Allier département* Saint-Palais, Cher, in the Cher département* Saint-Palais, Gironde, in the Gironde département...

, at the bar of the parlement of Navarre

Navarre

Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...

. He spent his leisure and his fortune in the search for documents bearing on the old Basque and Béarn

Béarn

Béarn is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three Basque provinces of Soule, Lower Navarre, and Labourd, the principality of Bidache, as well as small parts of Gascony, it forms in the...

ese provinces; and the fruits of his studies in the archives of Bayonne

Bayonne

Bayonne is a city and commune in south-western France at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, of which it is a sub-prefecture...

, Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

, Pau, Périgord

Périgord

The Périgord is a former province of France, which corresponds roughly to the current Dordogne département, now forming the northern part of the Aquitaine région. It is divided into four regions, the Périgord Noir , the Périgord Blanc , the Périgord Vert and the Périgord Pourpre...

 and other cities were embodied in forty-five manuscript volumes, which were sent by his son Gabriel to Colbert

Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Jean-Baptiste Colbert was a French politician who served as the Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing...

. Twenty of these are in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris

Bibliothèque nationale de France

The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...

 (Coll. Duchesne).

Oihenart published in 1625 a Déclaration historique de l'injuste usurpation et retention de la Navarre par les Espagnols and a fragment of a Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 work on the same subject is included in Auguste Galland's Mémoires pour l'histoire de Navarre (1648). His most important work is Notitia utriusque Vasconiae, tum Ibericae, tum Aquitanicae, qua praeter situm regions et alia scitu digna (1638 and 1656), a description of Gascony

Gascony

Gascony is an area of southwest France that was part of the "Province of Guyenne and Gascony" prior to the French Revolution. The region is vaguely defined and the distinction between Guyenne and Gascony is unclear; sometimes they are considered to overlap, and sometimes Gascony is considered a...

 and Navarre. His collection of over five hundred Basque proverbs, Atsotizac Refravac, included in a volume of his poems Gastroa Nevrthizetan, printed in Paris in 1657, was supplemented by a second collection, Atizen Venquina. The proverbs were edited by Francisque Xavier Michel

Francisque Xavier Michel

Francisque Xavier Michel was a French historian and philologist.- Life :He became known for his editions of French works of the Middle Ages, and the French Government, recognizing their value, sent him to England and Scotland to continue his research there...

 (1847), and the supplement by P. Hariston (1892) and by V. Stempf (1894).

See Julien Vinson, Essai d'une bibliographie de la langue basque (Paris, 1891); J. B. E. de Jaurgain, Arnaud d'Oihenart et sa famille (Paris, 1885).