Jean-Baptiste Bullet (1699 in

Besançon Besançon (, ; , ; archaic ; ) is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerland. Capi ...

– 6 September 1775) was a French writer on philology and antiquities, and the author of ''Histoire de l'Établissement du Christianisme,'' a treaty of the existence of God demonstrated by nature in response to the problems evoked by unbelievers against various parts of the holy books. But he is best known for his memoirs of the Celtic language, his historical research on playing cards and his Dissertation on various topics in the history of France. It is in this last work that he argues that the word "fleur de lys" has no similarity with the royal insignia bearing the flower of the same name, but the word "lis" which in

Celtic language The Celtic languages ( ) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, descended from the hypothetical Proto-Celtic language. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, following Paul-Yves ...

would have meant "sovereign king."

Biography

He was correspondent of the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Letters, royal professor of divinity, member of the academies of

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

and

Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...

, and

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean * Dean Sw ...

of the

University of Besançon The Marie and Louis Pasteur University (UMLP), formerly known as University of Franche-Comté, is a pluridisciplinary public French university located in Besançon, Franche-Comté, with decentralized campuses in Belfort, Montbéliard, Vesoul and ...

, where he died in 1775. Besides some theological productions, he wrote: ''Histoire de l’Établissement du Christianisme,'' taken solely from Jewish writers, ''Recherches Historiques sur les Cartes à Jouer'' and ''Dissertations sur différents sujets de l'histoire de France.'' But the reputation of Bullet is principally founded on his ''Mémoires sur la Langue Celtique,'' Besançon, 1754–1760, a work which displays much more industry and learning than either taste or judgment.

Works

*De apostolica e ecclesiae Gallicanae origine (Besançon, 1752) *Mémoire sur la langue celtique, contenant l'histoire de cette langue et un dictionnaire des termes qui la composent (Besançon, 1754) *Recherches historiques sur les cartes à jouer (Lyon, 1757) *Dissertations sur différents sujets de l'histoire de France (Besançon, 1759) *Histoire de l'établissement du christianisme, tirée des seuls auteurs juifs et païens, où l'on trouve une preuve solide de la vérité de cette religion (Lyon, 1764) *L’Existence de Dieu démontrée par les merveilles de la nature (Paris, 1768) *Dissertations sur la mythologie française et sur plusieurs curieux de l’historie de France (Paris, 1771) *Réponses critiques aux difficultés proposées par les incrédules sur divers endroits des livres saints (Paris, 1773–1775)

References

;Attribution *''This article is based on the translation of the corresponding article of the French Wikipedia. A list of contributors can be found there at the'
History
''section''.

External links

Histoire de l’Établissement du Christianisme, Paris, 1764
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bullet, Jean-Baptiste 1699 births French philologists 1775 deaths French male writers