Pierre-Jean Grosley

Pierre -Jean Grosley ( born November 21, 1718, Troyes, † November 4, 1785 in ) was a French historian, encyclopedist and writer.

Life and work

His father was Jean Grosley († 1732) a lawyer and bailiff, avocat et bailli in Saint Maure and his mother Louise Barolet, a daughter of the businessman and councilors from Troyes to Pierre Barolet. He was the oldest of three surviving siblings, his sister Marie Elizabeth (* 1719) and his brother François Grosley (* 1724) called Grosley de Lamurotte a later lawyer at court, avocat au Parlement.

He received his education at the College of Oratoranier, collège de l' Oratory of Troyes. He then went to Paris to study law. From 1737 to 1740 he studied law and worked as a clerk in various law pulpit land. In 1745 and 1746 he participated in the Italian campaign during the Austrian War of Succession in part on the staff of Marshal Maillebois. After his return he published his experiences in a story entitled Observations sur l' Italie et les Italy.

He won second place, according to Jean -Jacques Rousseau's Discours sur les sciences et les arts, in the contracts awarded by the Académie des Sciences, Arts et Belles-Lettres de Dijon in July 1750 writing contest.

Grosley various pseudonyms used du Chasselas, Sogirel, Chapus, Vauraoult, Glaudot, Girodet de Saint -Florentin, Pancrace Floguy, Zerubbabel, Malebranche, de Villedieu, le père Adri, Vadeboncoeur or le gentilhomme suédois. His numerous writings meant that he was appointed in 1761 as Assistant Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.

He estimated traveling a lot and so he went in the spring of 1765 by the Kingdom of Great Britain and also to London where he lived for six weeks. In his travelogue Londres he praised the English liberalism, a stance that earned him several controversies after the trip report was published in 1770. Grosleys other endeavors have taken him in the summer of 1772 in the north of France and Holland. After his return to England again in 1765, he thought for a moment getting married the widow of a friend, but he gave this project on.

Pierre Jean Grosley died in Troyes, in his house in the rue du Bourg -Neuf where he was also born on 4 November in 1785.

Works (selection)

• Mémoires de l' Académie des Sciences, Inscriptions, Belles Lettres, Beaux -Arts, etc., nouvelle ment establish itself à Troyes. Liège ( Troyes ), 1744, in-8 °; Paris, 1756th 2 vol. in - 12; ( Troyes ), 1768, in - 12; Londres ( Troyes ) to X;
• Mémoire pour servir de supplément aux antiquités ecclésiastiques de Troyes, par MN Camusat.Troyes, 1750, in -12, plusieurs fois réimprimé;
• Recherches pour servir à l' histoire du droit français, Paris, 1752, in - 12;
• Vie de Pierre Pithou, etc. Paris, 1756, 2 vol. in - 12;
• Ephémérides troyennes (1757-1768), Troyes, 12 vol. in - 32;
• Nouveaux Mémoires ou observations sur l' Italie et sur ​​les Italy, par deux gentilshommes suédois, Londres, 1764, 3 ​​vol. in - 12; 1770, 5 vol. in - 12; Londres, Lausanne, 1770, 3 vol. in - 12; 1774, 4 vol. in - 12;
• Mémoires sur les campagnes d'Italie en 1745 et 1746, Amsterdam, 1777, in-8 °;
• Vie de M. Grosley, par lui - même écrite, etc., Londres et Paris, 1787, in-8 °;
• Mémoires historiques et critiques pour l' histoire de Troyes, Troyes, 1811-1812, 2 vol. in-8 °
• Oeuvre inedites ( Mémoires sur les Troyens célèbres et Voyage en Hollande ), Paris, 1813, 3 vol. in-8 ° (Le voyage en Hollande forme le 3e volume ).
• Londres. Lausanne ( 1770), online