Alexandre-Frédéric-Jacques Masson de Pezay

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Claude Joseph Dorat to the left and Alexandre-Frédéric-Jacques Masson de Pezay in the middle, in the uniform of the dragoons , dragon. Engraving by Charles Eisen from 1764.

Alexandre-Frédéric-Jacques Masson de Pezay (born April 27, 1741 in Versailles , † December 6, 1777 in Château de Pezay , Marolles (Loir-et-Cher) ) was a French military man, man of letters and encyclopedist .

Live and act

He was the son of the banker Jacques Masson (1663–1741), a Calvinist Geneva native and his second wife Marie Boësnier (approx. 1710–1767). His mother was the sister of the physiocrat Paul Boësnier de l'Orme (1724–1793) and previously married to Jean Babaud (approx. 1702–1738). Jacques Masson worked in Versailles as contrôleur général des Finances .

From this marriage two children emerged, so the two stepsisters of Alexandre-Frédéric-Jacques Masson de Pezay, the Charlotte Babaud de la Chaussade (1736-1793) and Angélique Dorothée Babaud de la Chaussade marquise de Cassini. She was the wife of Joseph-Dominique Cassini (1715-1790).

His father worked in the financial administration of the Duchy of Lorraine and under Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, comte de Maurepas . After his father's death in 1741, his mother married Dominique-Joseph de Cassini (1715–1790).

He completed his school education at the Collège d'Harcourt and later joined the musketeers , mousquetaires .

Through his stepsister, the wife of Joseph-Dominique Cassini (1715-1790), she was also the lover of the Prince de Conde and the comte de Maillebois, his first literary attempts in the direction of more serious work were awakened.

During the Seven Years' War , la guerre de Sept Ans , he became the personal adjutant, aide-de-camp of the Prince of Rohan. At the age of thirty-two he became an officer, capitaine de dragons .

At the court of Louis XVI. he worked under Jean Étienne Bernard Clugny de Nuits and Jacques Necker to control the finances. In November 1776 he married Caroline Murat, she was the daughter of Jean-Baptiste, seigneur de la Plagne and Charlotte Locquet de La Pommeraye. He was on friendly terms with Voltaire and Rousseau .

Portrait of the Marquise de Pezay, born Caroline de Murat, and the Marquise de Rougé , accompanied by their two children. ( Vigée-Lebrun )

He wrote the article Valeur for the Encyclopédie by Denis Diderot and Jean Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert .

Works (selection)

  • Zélis au bain: Poëme en quatre chants. Paris 1763, 1766, online
  • Lettre d'Alcibiade à Glycère. Paris 1764
  • Lettre d'Ovide à Julie. 1767
  • Suite des Bagatelles anonymes (de Dorat). Paris 1767
  • La Closière ou le Vin nouveau, opéra-comique. Paris 1770
  • Éloge de Fénelon. Paris, 1771
  • Les Soirées helvétiennes, alsaciennes et franc-comtoises. Paris 1771; London 1772, 2 vol.
  • Les Tableaux, suivis de l'Histoire de Mlle de Syanne et du comte de Marcy. Paris 1771
  • Traduction en prose de Catulle, Tibulle et Gallus. Paris 1771, 1794
  • La Rosière de Salenci, opéra lyrique. Paris 1773
  • La musique de Grétry fit le succès de cet ouvrage.
  • Histoire des campagnes de Maillebois en Italie en 1745 et 1746. Paris 1775
  • Journal militaire ou relation détaillée des campagnes de M. le maréchal de Maillebois en Italie: précédé et suivi d'un précis historique de cette guerre. 1775
  • Article "Valeur" in the encyclopedia

literature

  • Rodolphe Reuss: Le Marquis de Pezay: un tourist parisien en Alsace au XVIIIe siècle. (1876)
  • Dominique Varry: Le Marquis de Pezay Témoin de son temps les soirées helvétiennes, alsaciennes et fran-comtoises (1771). Pp. 509-519 In Paul Delsalle; François Lassus; Corinne Marchal; François Vion-Delphin: Mélanges offerts au professeur Maurice Gresset des institutions et des hommes. Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté, 2007 ISBN 978-2-84867-186-4 (PDF; 1.6 MB)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frontispice de Le Pot-Pourri, épître à qui l'on voudra, de Dorat, suivi de l'Epître à mon ami, de Pezay, Genève et Paris, S. Jorry, 1764.
  2. ^ Consortium of European Research Libraries. Pezay, Alexandre Frédéric Jacques de Masson de (1741 - 1777)
  3. ^ Bibliothèque Dauphinoise. Alexandre-Frédéric-Jacques Masson, marquis de Pezay
  4. ↑ Genealogy of the wife
  5. ↑ Family genealogy
  6. ↑ Frank A. Kafker: Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie. Année (1990) Volume 8 Numéro 8 p. 111
personal data
SURNAME Pezay, Alexandre-Frédéric-Jacques Masson de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pezay, Alexandre-Frédéric-Jacques Masson marquis de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French military man, man of letters and encyclopedist
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1741
PLACE OF BIRTH Versailles
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1777
Place of death Château de Pezay , Marolles (Loir-et-Cher)