AMANS

ALEXIS

See also:

• AMANS ALEXIS MONTEIL (1769–1850)

MONTEIL (1769–1850)  , French historian, was born at Rodez in 1769, and died at Cely (Seine-et-Marne) in 185o . His tastes were historical, and he taught history at Rodez, at Fontainebleau and at St Cyr . He held that a disproportionate importance had been given to kings, their ministers and generals, and that it was necessary rather to study the people . In his Histoire des francais des divers etas, ou histoire de France aux cinq derniers siecles (10 vols., 1828–1844) he undertook to describe the different classes and occupations of the community . For this he made a collection of manuscripts, which he sold in 1835 (many of them passed into the library of Sir Thomas Philipps), drawing up a catalogue under the singular title of Traite de materiaux manuscrits de divers genres d'histoire . He boasted of having been the first to write really " national " history, and he wished further to show this in a memoir entitled L'Influence de l'histoire des divers etats, ou comment fill allee la France si elle eat eu cette histoire . (184o; reprinted in 1841 under 766 the title: Les Francais pour la premiere fois clans l'histoire de France, ou poetique de l'histoire des divers etats) . Monteil did not invent the history of civilization, but he was one of the first in France, and perhaps in Europe, to point out its extreme importance . He revised the third edition of his history himself (5 vols., 1848); a fourth appeared after his death with a preface by Jules Janin (5 vols., 1853) .