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CHARLES DE BROSSES (1709-1777)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 651 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHARLES DE See also:BROSSES (1709-1777)  , See also:French See also:magistrate and See also:scholar, was See also:born at See also:Dijon and studied See also:law with a view to the magistracy . The See also:bent of his mind, however, was towards literature and See also:science, and, after a visit to See also:Italy in 1739 in See also:company with his friend See also:Jean See also:Baptiste de Lacurne de Sainte-Palaye, he published his Lettres sur Petal actuel de la ville souterraine d'Herculee (Dijon, 1750), the first See also:work upon the ruins of See also:Herculaneum . It was during this See also:Italian tour that he wrote his famous letters on Italy, which remained in MS. till See also:long after his See also:death . In 176o he published a dissertation, Du culte See also:des dieux fetiches, which was afterwards inserted in the Encyclopedie methodique . At the solicitation of his friend See also:Buffon, he under-took his Histoire des See also:navigation aux terres australes, which was published in 1756, in two vols . 4to, with maps . It was in this work that de See also:Brosses first laid down the See also:geographical divisions of See also:Australasia and See also:Polynesia, which were afterwards adopted by See also:John See also:Pinkerton and succeeding geographers . He also contributed to the Encyclopedie the articles " Langues," " Musique," " Etymologie." In 1765 appeared his work on the origin of See also:language, Traite de la formation mecanique des langues, the merits of which are recognized by E . B . See also:Tylor in See also:Primitive Culture . De Brosses had been occupied, during a See also:great See also:part of his See also:life, on a See also:translation of See also:Sallust, and in attempting to See also:supply the lost chapters in that celebrated historian . At length in 1777 he published L'Histoire du septieme siecle de la republique romaine, 3 vols .

4to, to which is prefixed a learned life of Sallust, reprinted at the commencement of the translation of that historian by Jean Baptiste Dureau de La Malle . These See also:

literary occupations did not prevent the author from discharging with ability his See also:official duties as first See also:president of the See also:parliament of See also:Burgundy, nor from carrying on a See also:constant and extensive See also:correspondence with the most distinguished literary characters of his See also:time . In 1758 he succeeded the See also:marquis de Caumont in the Academie des Belles-lettres; but when in 1770 he presented himself at the French See also:Academy, his candidature was rejected owing to See also:Voltaire's opposition on See also:personal grounds . Besides the See also:works already mentioned, he wrote several See also:memoirs and See also:dissertations in the collections of the Academy of See also:Inscriptions, and in those of the Academy of Dijon, and he See also:left behind him several See also:MSS., which were unfortunately lost during the Revolution . His letters on Italy were, however, found in MS. in the confiscated library by his son, the emigre officer Rene de Brosses, and were first published in 1799, in the uncritical edition of See also:Antoine Serieys, under the See also:title of Lettres historiques et critiques . A fresh edition, freed from errors and interpolations, by R . See also:Colomb, with the title L'Italie it y a cent ans, was issued in 1836; and two subsequent reprints appeared, one edited by Poulet-Malassis, under the title Lettres familieres (1858); the other, a re-impression of Colomb's edition, under that of Le President de Brosses en Italie (1858) . See H . Mamet, Le President de Brosses, sa See also:vie et ses ouvrages (See also:Lille, 1874) ; also Cunisset-See also:Carnot, " La Querelle de Voltaire et du president de Brosses," in the Revue des Deux Blondes (See also:February 15, 1888) .

End of Article: CHARLES DE BROSSES (1709-1777)
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