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Louis Dutens (15 January 173023 May 1812) was a French writer born in
Recherches sur l'origine des découvertes attribuées aux modernes (Google Books)
(Paris, 1766)
Memoirs of a Traveler, Now in Retirement/Dutensiana (Google Books)
(text in 5 volumes: London, 1806, "translated from the French under the superintendence of the author")
Memoirs of a Traveler, Now in Retirement/Dutensiana (Internet Archive)Le tocsin (Google Books)
(Rome, 1769) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dutens, Louis 1730 births 1812 deaths 18th-century French historians 18th-century French writers 18th-century French male writers French editors Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres French male non-fiction writers 19th-century French historians
Louis Dutens (15 January 173023 May 1812) was a French writer born in Tours
Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...
, of Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
parents, who lived most of his life in Britain or in British service on the continent.
He went to London, where his uncle was a jeweller, and there obtained a situation as tutor in a private family. In this position he learnt mathematics, Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
, Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
and several oriental languages. He took orders, and was appointed chaplain and secretary to the English minister
Minister may refer to:
* Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric
** Minister (Catholic Church)
* Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department)
** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...
at the court of Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
in October 1758. From 1760 to 1762, he was chargé d'affaires
A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...
at Turin. Lord Bute
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, (; 25 May 1713 – 10 March 1792), styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1713 and 1723, was a British nobleman who served as the 7th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763 under George III. He was arguabl ...
, before retiring from office in 1763, procured him a pension. He again went to Turin as chargé d'affaires; and during this second mission he collected and published an edition of the works of Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathema ...
(''Gothofridi Guillemi Leibnitii Opera Omnia'', Geneva, 6 vols., 1768) and wrote his ''Recherches sur l'origine des découvertes attribuées aux modernes'' (1766).
On his return to England the Duke of Northumberland
Duke of Northumberland is a noble title that has been created three times in English and British history, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of Great Britain. The current holder of this title is Ralph Percy, 12th Duke ...
procured him the living of Elsdon, in Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land on ...
, and made Dutens overseer and senior travel companion – in effect, tutor – to his younger son
A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative.
Social issues
In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...
during his Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...
. At Rome in 1769, Dutens published ''Le tocsin'' (later published in Paris as ''Appel au bon sens''), a work of Christian apologetics
Apologetics (from Greek , "speaking in defense") is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and ...
. He was active in civic life beyond the parish and preached the annual sermon to the Charity School of St Nicholas, Newcastle, in 1768.
In 1775, he became a member of the French Academy of Inscriptions
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...
and a fellow of the Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
. Dutens was for a third time chargé d'affaires at Turin. He was in Paris in 1783, and returned to London the following year. Between 1775 and 1805, he wrote his ''Memoirs of a Traveler, Now in Retirement'', which contains a wide-ranging miscellany of Dutens' life "interspersed with historical, literary, and political anecdotes relative to the principal personages of the present age".''Memoirs of a Traveler, Now in Retirement'' (vol. 1, London, 1806), title page and p. 3. He died in London in 1812.
References
External links
*Recherches sur l'origine des découvertes attribuées aux modernes (Google Books)
(Paris, 1766)
Memoirs of a Traveler, Now in Retirement/Dutensiana (Google Books)
(text in 5 volumes: London, 1806, "translated from the French under the superintendence of the author")
Memoirs of a Traveler, Now in Retirement/Dutensiana (Internet Archive)
(Rome, 1769) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dutens, Louis 1730 births 1812 deaths 18th-century French historians 18th-century French writers 18th-century French male writers French editors Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres French male non-fiction writers 19th-century French historians