Paul Lucas (traveller)

Paul Lucas ( born August 31, 1664 Rouen, † May 12, 1737 in Madrid) was a French merchant, explorer and antiquity watchers in the service of Louis XIV, he made ​​three extended trips to Egypt and the Near East. .

Life

Like his contemporary, the Orient traveler Jean Chardin, Lucas was perhaps originally jeweler. At least it was in the corresponding period a family of goldsmiths of that name in Paris. Allegedly he began in his youth to travel, and some would argue that he had begun his career as a corsair. Anyway, he took in 1688, in the Venetian service, at the siege of Negroponte part. In 1696 he returned with a large collection of medals and other antiquities to France, which he sold to the Royal Collection. By this he acquired the favor of the court and was sent in the sequence three times to obtain further finds and manuscripts. Its colorful and spicy Reports often verge on the fairytale, but this was mitigated by the learned quotations and classical education of its editors.

From June 1699 to July 1703, he traveled to Egypt, Cyprus, Persia and Syria. Here he became the first European to more detailed knowledge of the course of the Nile between Cairo and the cataracts, and came to Thebes ( but without the ancient city can be seen ). The second journey took him from October 1704 to September 1708 by Greece, Macedonia, Turkey, and Palestine ( where he describes Jerusalem anfertigte ) to North Africa (where he collected material for the history of Tunis ). 1714 Lucas was appointed royal antiquary ( antiquaire du roi ). Between 1714 and 1717 he visited a second time Istanbul, Syria, Palestine and Egypt.

Works

  • Voyage du Sieur Paul Lucas au Levant. On y trouvera entr'autre une description de la haute Égypte, suivant le cours du Nil, depuis le Caire aux jusques Cataractes, avec une carte de ce fleuve exacte, que personne n'avoit donné. Paris, Guillaume Vandive, 1704, Vol 2
  • Voyage de Sieur Paul Lucas, fait par ordre du Roi dans la Grèce, l' Asie miners, et l' Afrique la Macédoine. Nicolas Simart, Paris, 1712, Vol 2
  • Voyage du Sieur Paul Lucas, fait en 1714 [ ... ] dans la Turquie, l' Asie, la Syrie, Palestine la, la Haute et la bass Égpte, etc. Rouen, R. Machuel le jeune, 1719, Vol 3
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