MARC ANTOINE RENE DE VOYER

This article appears in Volume V02, Page 459 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MAL-MAR

MARC ANTOINE RENE DE VOYER , marquis de Paulmy d'Argenson (1722-1787), nephew of the preceding and son of Rene Louis, was born at

Valenciennes

VALENCIENNES

on the 22nd of November 1722. Appointed councillor at the parlement (1744), and maitre des requeetes (1747), he was associated with his father in the ministry of foreign affairs and with his uncle in the ministry of war, and, in recognition of this experience, was commissioned to inspect the troops and fortifications and sent on embassy to Switzerland (1748). In 1751 his uncle recognized him as his

deputy

DEPUTY (through the Fr. from a Late Lat. use of deputare, to cut off, allot; putare having the original sense of to trim, prune)

and made over to him the reversion of the secretariate of war. He then worked on the

great

GREAT

reform of the army, and after the dismissal of his uncle became minister of war (February 1757). But the outbreak of the Seven Years' War made this post exceedingly difficult to hold, and he resigned on the 23rd of

March

1758. He was

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

to Poland from 1762 to 1764, but failed to procure the nomination of the French candidate to that throne. From 1766 to 1770 he was

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

at Venice. Failing to obtain the embassy at Rome, he retired at the age of

forty

FORTY

-eight and devoted the rest of his life to indulging his tastes for history and biography. He brought together a large library, very rich in French poetry and romance, and undertook various publications with the help of his librarian. In 1775 he began his Bibliotheque universelle des romans, of which

forty

FORTY

volumes appeared within three years, but subsequently handed over the publication to other editors. His

great

GREAT

work

WORK

, Melanges tires d'une grande bibliotheque, was published in 65 volumes (Paris, 1779-1788). At his death he forbade his library to be dispersed: it was bought by the comte d'

Artois

ARTOIS

(afterwards Charles X.) and formed the nucleus of the present Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal at Paris (the marquis having been

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

of the arsenal). He died on the 13th of August 1787.
See contemporary memoirs; also Dacier's eulogium in the Acadimie des

Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

et Belles-Leitres (November 1788) ; and Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi (vol. xii.).

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