Antoine-Augustin Bruzen de La Martinière
Antoine-Augustin Bruzen de La Martinière (* 1662 in Dieppe ; † 19 June 1746 in La Haye ) was a French polymath. His main work is the geographical lexicon Le Grand Dictionnaire Geographique Et Critique , published in ten volumes between 1726 and 1739 .
life and work
La Martinière was born in Dieppe and grew up in Paris with his great-uncle, the theologian and historian Richard Simon . In 1709 he went to the court of the Mecklenburg Duke Friedrich Wilhelm . After Friedrich Wilhelm's death in 1713, La Martinière entered the service of the Duke of Parma Francesco Farnese , who sent him to the Netherlands on a diplomatic mission. Numerous translations and compilations were made in Amsterdam . As secretary to the King of the Two Sicilies , La Martinière received a pension of 1,200 écu . After a few years in the Netherlands, La Martinière went to La Haye , where he lived until his death in June 1746.
La Martinière's main work is the Grand Dictionnaire Geographique Et Critique , which appeared in its first edition from 1726 in ten volumes in La Haye and which is one of the most extensive geographical works of the 18th century. On the advice of the Marquis Beretti Landi, the ambassador of Spain to the States General , La Martinière dedicated the work to the Spanish King Philip V , who awarded him the title of First Geographer in gratitude. In Germany the work was translated and expanded under the title Historical-Political-Geographical Atlas of the Whole World . The alphabetical volumes of this German-language edition appeared between 1744 and 1749, a supplement volume in 1750. The Leipzig-based bookseller Johann Samuel Heinsius acted as the publisher. Even after La Martinière's death, the Grand Dictionnaire Geographique Et Critique appeared in several new editions, around 1768 in a six-volume, corrected edition in Paris.
literature
- La Martinière (Antoine-Augustin Bruzen de) , in: Jean Chrétien Ferdinand Hoefer, Nouvelle biographie générale, Volume 29: La Liborlière - Lavoisien, Paris 1859, pp. 94–98.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bruzen de La Martinière, Antoine-Augustin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French polymath |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1662 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dieppe (Seine-Maritime) |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 19, 1746 |
| Place of death | La Haye (Seine-Maritime) |