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BARTHELEMY, JEAN JACQUES (1716–1795)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 449 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BARTHELEMY, See also:JEAN JACQUES (1716–1795) See also:French writer, and numismatist, was See also:born on the 20th of See also:January 17 16 at Cassis, in See also:Provence. He was educated first at the See also:college of the See also:Oratory in See also:Marseilles, and afterwards at that of the See also:Jesuits in the same See also:city. While studying for the priesthood, which he intended to join, he devoted much See also:attention to See also:oriental See also:languages, and was introduced by his friend M. See also:Cary of Marseilles to the study of classical antiquities, particularly in the See also:department of See also:numismatics. In 1744 he went to See also:Paris with a See also:letter of introduction to M. See also:Gros de Boze, perpetual secretary of the See also:Academy of See also:Inscriptions andBelles-lettres and keeper of the royal collection of medals. He became assistant to de Boze, on whose See also:death (1753) he became keeper of the medals. In 1755 he accompanied the French See also:ambassador, M. de Stainville, afterwards duc de See also:Choiseul, to See also:Italy, where he spent three years in archaeological See also:research. Choiseul had a See also:great regard for Barthelemy, and on his return to See also:France, Barthelemy became an inmate of his See also:house, and received valuable preferments from his See also:patron. In 1789, after the publication of his Voyage du jeune See also:Anacharsis, he was elected a member of the French Academy. During the Revolution Barthelemy was arrested as an aristocrat. The See also:Committee of Public Safety, however, were no sooner informed by the duchess of Choiseul of the See also:arrest, than they gave orders for his immediate See also:release, and in 1793 he was nominated librarian of the Bibliotheque Nationale.

He refused this See also:

post but resumed his old functions as keeper of medals, and enriched the See also:national collection by many valuable accessions. Barthelemy died on the 30th of See also:April 1795. Barthelemy was the author of a number of learned See also:works on antiquarian subjects, but the great See also:work on which his fame rests is Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grece, vers le milieu du quatrieme siecle avant l'ere chretienne (4 vols., 1787). He had begun it in 1757 and had been working on it for See also:thirty years. The See also:hero, a See also:young Scythian descended from the famous philosopher Anacharsis, is supposed to repair to See also:Greece for instruction in his See also:early youth, and after making the tour of her republics, colonies and islands, to return to his native See also:country and write this See also:book in his old See also:age, after the Macedonian hero had overturned the See also:Persian See also:empire. In the manner of See also:modern travellers, he gives an See also:account of the customs, See also:government and antiquities of the country he is supposed to have visited; a copious introduction supplies what-ever may be wanting in respect to See also:historical details; whilst various See also:dissertations on the See also:music of the Greeks, on the literature of the Athenians, and on the See also:economy, pursuits, ruling passions, See also:manners and customs of the surrounding states See also:supply ample See also:information on the subjects of which they treat. Modern scholarship has superseded most of the details in the Voyage, but the author himself did not imagine his book to be a See also:register of accurately ascertained facts; he rather intended to afford to his countrymen, in an interesting See also:form, some knowledge of See also:Greek See also:civilization. The Charicles of W. A. See also:Becker is an See also:attempt in a similar direction, but, though See also:superior in scholarship, it wants the See also:charm of See also:style of the Anacharsis. Barthelemy's See also:correspondence with See also:Paolo Paciaudi, chiefly on antiquarian subjects, was edited with the Correspondance inedite du See also:comte de See also:Caylus in 1877 by Ch. See also:Nisard; his letters to the comte de Caylus were published by See also:Antoine Serieys as Voyage en Italie (1801) ; and his letters to Mme du See also:Deffand, with whom he was on intimate terms, in the Correspondance See also:complete de Mme du Deffand avec la duchesse de Choiseul, l'See also:abbe Barthelemy et M.Craufurt (3 vols., 1866), edited by the See also:marquis de Sainte-Aulaire.

See also Memoires sur la See also:

vie de l'abbe Barthelemy, ecrits See also:par lui-meeeme (1824), with a See also:notice by See also:Lalande. His fEuvres completes (4 vols. 1821), contain a notice by Villenave.

End of Article: BARTHELEMY, JEAN JACQUES (1716–1795)

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