Louis Cousin-Despréaux

Louis Cousin-Despréaux (born August 7, 1743 in Dieppe , Département Seine-Maritime , † October 3, 1818 ibid) was a French homme de lettres .

Cousin-Despréaux came from a long-established family and worked in the administration of his hometown. As a “homme de lettres” he was a member of the Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres von Rouen and corresponded regularly with the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris . Through his association with these academies he was a. a. known and friends with Augustin Barruel , Antoine Henri de Bérault-Bercastel , Jacob-Nicolas Moreau , Philippe Louis Gérard and Madame Roland .

Between 1780 and 1789, Cousin-Despréaux published his "Histoire générale et particulière de la Grece" and was able to make a successful debut with it. During the revolution , Cousin-Despréaux lived very secluded on an estate belonging to his family. The last years of his life were spent planning to build a canal from Dieppe to Paris.

Eight weeks after his 75th birthday, Cousin-Despréaux died on October 3 in Dieppe, where he found his final resting place.

Works (selection)

• Histoire générale et particulière de la Grece . Paris 1780/89 (16 vol.).
• Les leçons de la nature ou histoire naturelle présentée à l'ésprit et au cœur . Paris 1801 (4 vol.).

literature

• Jean-Baptiste Glaire et al. a. (Ed.): Encyclopédie catholique. Répertoire universel et raisonné des sciences, des lettres, des arts et des métiers . Desbarres, Paris 1846 (vol. 9, p. 619).
• Louis-Gabriel Michaud: Biography universelle ancienne et contemporaine . Edition Omnia, Munich 1980/81 vol. 61, p. 504 (reprint of the Paris 1861 edition).