- Louis-Antoine Caraccioli
Marquis Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (
November 6 ,1719 -1803) was a prolific Frenchwriter ,poet ,historian , andbiographer long time considered an "enemy of Philosophy" because of his broadapologetic production.Life
Caraccioli was born and wrote in
Paris , though he studied inMans and travelled inItaly ,Germany andPoland . His work was not ranked highly in his time; one of the old French biographical dictionaries, "Nouvelle biographie générale", describes him as "un littérateur" (a maker of literature) rather than "un écrivain." (a writter) Though he died poor, Caraccioli survived theFrench Revolution , despite his close ties to Frencharistocracy during the reigns ofLouis XV andLouis XVI . Caraccioli started his literary career during his travels inItaly . He wrote on a broad range of topics, but he is especially interesting to eighteenth-centuryscholars ofmanners ,Pope Clement XIV andultramontanism , among other subjects. Caraccioli is best known among book collectors for his color-printed books -- "Le livre de quatre couleurs" (1757) and "Le livre à la mode" (1759) -- as well as "La jouissance de soi-même" (1759), "Liège de Le véritable mentor" (1759), "Le langage de la raison" (1763), "De la gaieté" (1767), "L’agriculture simplifiée" (1769), "Le Voyage de la Raison en Europe" (1772), and "Lettres intéressantes du pape Clément XIV" (1776), many of which went through numerous editions inEurope and theUnited States and have been translated into several languages. "Lettres intéressantes du pape Clément XIV", which are considered by many to be forgeries, initially misled many Europeans about the life of the then recently deceasedPope .One of his most studied/ collected books, "Les adieux de la Maréchale de *** à ses enfants" (1769) (trans. "Advice from a Lady of Quality to her Children, in the Last Stage of a Lingering Illness, In a Series of Evening-Conferences on the Most Interesting Subjects") was written in a series of "conferences" or meetings, which substitute for chapters or the more common use of letters. Unlike most courtesy books, Caraccioli's has the semblance of a plot and reads somewhat like a novel, which ends with the death of the main character. Caraccioli's work evolved a great deal over the half-century in which it was produced, and gradually reflected many modern values. Today many of his books are collected by various libraries throughout
Europe and America, especially theBibliothèque nationale de France and theWilliam Andrews Clark Memorial Library atUCLA .Ruined by the
French revolution , he was awarded a 2000 francs pension by theNational Convention in 1795.Major works
* "Caractère de l'amitié"
* "Conversation avec soi-même"
* "Jouissance de soi-même"
* "De la Grandeur d'âme"
* "Tableau de la mort"
* "De la gaieté"
* "Les adieux de la Maréchale de *** à ses enfants"
* "Langage de la raison"
* "Langage de la religion"
* "Religion de l'honnête homme"
* "Le Chrétien du temps"
* "Diogène à Paris"
* "Le Livre à la mode"
* "Vraie manière d'élever les princes"
* "Dictionnaire pittoresque et sententieux"
* "Vie de Clément XIV"
* "Lettres intéressantes du pape Clément XIV"External links
* [http://www.crlv.org/outils/encyclopedie/afficher.php?encyclopedie_id=202 "Louis-Antoine Caraccioli peintre de l'Italie : une manifestation ignorée de l'ultramontanisme"]
* [http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/c1718cs/Nltr40.htm The Center & Clark Newsletter On Line, no. 40, Fall 2002]
* [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Antoine_Caraccioli French Wikipedia page for Louis-Antoine Caraccioli]
Further reading
Jacques, Martine. "Louis-Antoine Caraccioli, Ecrivian et Voyageur." Lille : Atelier National de Reproduction des Thèses, 2001.
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