DUTENS, LOUIS (1730-1812)

This article appears in Volume V08, Page 736 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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DUTENS, LOUIS (1730-1812) , French writer, was born at Tours, of

Protestant

PROTESTANT

parents, on the 15th of January 1730. He went to London, where his uncle was a jeweller, and there obtained a situation as tutor in a private family. In this position he learnt Greek and mathematics, and studied oriental languages, also Italian and Spanish. He took orders, and was appointed chaplain and secretary to the English minister at the court of

Turin

TURIN

in October 1758. In 176o1762 he was charge d'affaires at

Turin

TURIN

. Lord Bute, before retiring from office in 1763, procured him a pension. He again went to Turin as charge d'affaires; and during this second mission he collected and published a complete edition of the works of Leibnitz (Geneva, 6 vols., 1768) and wrote his Recherches sur l'origine des decouvertes attribuees aux modernes (1766). On his return to England the duke of Northumberland procured him the living of Elsdon, in Northumberland, and made him tutor to his son. In 1775 he became a member of the French

Academy

ACADEMY, GREEK
ACADEMY, ROYAL

Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

and a fellow of the Royal Society. Dutens was for a third time charge d'affaires at Turin. He was in Paris in 1783, and returned to London the following year. He died in London on the 23rd of May 1812.
The

principal

PRINCIPAL

works of Dutens were his Recherches surl'origine des dicouvertes attribuees aux modernes (1766, 2 vols.); Appel au bon sens (London, 1777, 8vo), directed in defence of Christianity against the French philosophers, and published anonymously; Explication de guelques medailles de peuples, de rois et de villes grecques et pheniciennes (London, 1773) ; Explication de quelques medailles du cabinet de Duane (1774) ; Troisieme dissertation sur guelques medailles grecques et pheniciennes (1776) ; Logique, ou l'art de raisonner (1773); Des pierres precieuses et des pierres fines, avec les moyens de les connaitre et de les evaluer (Paris, 1776) ; Itiniraire des routes les plus frequentees, ou

journal

JOURNAL
JOURNAL (through Fr. from late Lat. diurnalis, daily)

d'un voyage aux principales villes d'Europe (Paris, 1775), frequently republished; Considerations theologiques sur les moyens de reunir toutes les eglises chretiennes (1798); (Euvres melees, containing his most important works published up to the date (London, 1797, 4 vols.) ; L'Ami des strangers qui voyagent en Angleterre (1789, 8vo) ; Histoire de ce qui s'est passe pour le retablissement d'une regence en Angleterre (1789); Recherches sur le tems le plus recule de l'usage des mites chez les anciens (1795) ; Memoires d'un voyageur qui se repose (Paris, 1786, 3 vols.). The first two volumes of the last-named

work

WORK

contain the life of the author, written in a romantic style; the third bears the title of Dutensiana, and is filled with remarks, anecdotes and bons mots. (See memoir of Dutens in the

Gentleman

GENTLEMAN (from Lat. gentilis, " belonging to a race or gens," and " man "; Fr. gentilhomme, Span. gentil hombre, Ital. gentil huomo, in its
original
- ORIGINAL
and strict signification, a
term
- TERM
denoting a man of good family, the Lat. generosus (its invariable transl

's Magazine for 1812.)

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