Charles Pinot Duclos
Charles Pinot Duclos (born February 12, 1704 in Dinan (Brittany), † March 26, 1772 in Paris ) was a French author, historian and encyclopedist . From 1755 he was secretary of the Académie française , he wrote a. a. Treatises on cultural history, novels and short stories.
Live and act
As the son of a wealthy hat maker from Dinan, Duclos initially intended to take over the trade and business from his father. The family lost most of their fortune in the disastrously developing speculative bubble initiated by John Law around the Mississippi Company in 1720 ( Mississippi Bubble ). His widowed mother sent him to Paris for further training. He continued his education first at the Académie , which Abbé de Dangeau maintained in the rue de Charonne , and then studied law at the Collège d'Harcourt . After completing his studies, he started working for a Paris lawyer.
He frequented the Procope café and joined a small group around Alexis Piron , Claude-Henri de Fusée de Voisenon (1708–1775), Claude-Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon and Charles Collé (1709–1783). But then he turned to literature as an author. In 1739 he was accepted into the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres . On January 26, 1747 admission to the Académie française, of which he was permanent secretary until 1755. Both academies owe him not only many valuable contributions, but also several useful organizational regulations and improvements. The citizens of Dinan made him mayor of their city in 1744, although he lived in Paris, and in that capacity he participated in the États de Bretagne . 1755 Duclos received his title of nobility.
Duclos was a protégé of Madame de Pompadour and Claudine Guérin de Tencin , he stayed in the many salons and literary cafés of the city of Paris, such as the Société du Caveau .
In 1763 he was advised to withdraw from France for a period after he positioned himself against Emmanuel-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu, duc d'Aiguillon in favor of his friend and compatriot Louis-René de Caradeuc de La Chalotais . In the same year a conflict began between the estates of Brittany and the governor of the province, the Duke Aiguillon. The estates refused to approve the extraordinary levies paid by Aiguillon on behalf of King Louis XV. had been requested. La Chalotais was in a sense a personal enemy of Aiguillon, and when the Parliament of Brittany sided with the estates, he took a leading role in their opposition. Parliament banned the collection of taxes without the consent of the estates. The king in turn repealed these decrees, whereupon all but twelve members of parliament resigned (October 1764 to May 1765). The government considered La Chalotais to be one of the initiators of this affair. As part of this quarrel, he, his son and four other members of parliament were arrested. Duclos in connection with these events left France in 1763 first for England and then in 1766 for Italy. Nicolas Beauzée, a French linguist, was appointed to the Académie française in 1772 to succeed his friend Charles Pinot Duclos. After his return from there, he processed his impressions in the Considérations sur l'Italie (1791), which appeared posthumously.
Histoire de la baronne de Luz, anecdote du règne de Henri IV, 1741: récit des aventures d'une femme qui succombe toujours et n'a jamais tort. Confessions du comte de ***, 1742
Works
- Considerations sur les mœurs (1751; German, Jena 1758),
- Confessions du comte de * * * (1742)
- Mémoires sur les mœurs du XVIII e siècle (1749).
- Histoire de Louis XI (1745)
- Histoire de la baronne de Luz, anecdote du règne de Henri IV , (1741)
- Les Caractères de la Folie , ballet en 3 actes, 1743
- Acajou et Zirphile , (1744)
- Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des mœurs du XVIII e , (1751)
- Considérations sur l'Italie , (1791)
- Mémoires secrets sur le règne de Louis XIV, la régence et le règne de Louis XV , (1791)
- Remarques on the Grammaire de Port-Royal
- Œuvres complètes ( 1806 ) (posthumous)
literature
- Karl Toth: French salon life around Charles Pinot Duclos 1704-1772. Vienna 1918 ( digitized version )
- Eleonore Heilmann: Charles Pinot Duclos: a man of letters of the 18th century and his relationships with Rousseau, d'Alembert, Marmontel and others. Tesis, Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin Philosophical Faculty. Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat, (1936)
- Erich Loos : Charles Pinot Duclos as a moralist of the eighteenth century and his importance for the status of the “gens de lettres”. Dissertation University of Cologne (1950)
Web links
- Works by and about Charles Pinot Duclos in the German Digital Library
- Short biography and list of works of the Académie française (French)
- Entry to Duclos; Charles Dineau (1705-1772) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Duclos, Charles Pinot |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French author, historian and encyclopedist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 12, 1704 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dinan |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 26, 1772 |
| Place of death | Paris |