67-761: Malesherbes may refer to: Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (1721–1794); French statesman, lawyer and defender of King Louis XVI Guillaume de Lamoignon de Blancmesnil (1683—1772); seigneur de Blancmesnil et de Malesherbes; father of Guillame-Chrétien, politician and statesman Malesherbes station (Paris Métro) ; on Boulevard Malesherbes Malesherbes, Loiret ; commune in France Malesherbes station (Paris RER) , railway station serving Malesherbes, Loiret SC Malesherbes ; French football club See also [ edit ] Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough (1805–1877) U.S. Admiral Topics referred to by
134-591: A Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and Crafts'), better known as Encyclopédie ( French: [ɑ̃siklɔpedi] ), was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, and translations. It had many writers, known as the Encyclopédistes . It was edited by Denis Diderot and, until 1759, co-edited by Jean le Rond d'Alembert . The Encyclopédie
201-950: A Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts, by a Company of Persons of Letters, edited by M. Diderot of the Academy of Sciences and Belles-lettres of Prussia: as to the Mathematical Portion, arranged by M. d'Alembert of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, of the Academy of Sciences in Prussia and of the Royal Society of London.") The title page was amended as d'Alembert acquired more titles. The work consisted of 28 volumes, with 71,818 articles and 3,129 illustrations. The first seventeen volumes were published between 1751 and 1765; eleven volumes of plates were finished by 1772. Engraver Robert Bénard provided at least 1,800 plates for
268-589: A famous legal family which belonged to the noblesse de robe , Malesherbes was educated for the legal profession. The young lawyer's career received a boost when his father, Guillaume de Lamoignon de Blancmesnil , was appointed Chancellor in 1750; he appointed his son Malesherbes as both President of the Cour des Aides and Director of the Librairie. This latter office entailed supervision of all French censorship , and in this capacity Malesherbes maintained communication with
335-506: A few years after his death, biographers portrayed Malesherbes as a romantic figure, one of the innocent victims of the Terror. For example, the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica writes of him: Malesherbes is one of the sweetest characters of the 18th century; though no man of action, hardly a man of the world, by his charity and unfeigned goodness he became one of the most popular men in France, and it
402-687: A full 25% of the Encyclopédie . The publication became a place where these contributors could share their ideas and interests, still, as Frank Kafker has argued, the Encyclopedists were not a unified group: ... despite their reputation, [the Encyclopedists] were not a close-knit group of radicals intent on subverting the Old Regime in France. Instead they were a disparate group of men of letters, physicians, scientists, craftsmen and scholars ... even
469-544: A place in the civil and literary history of its century. It sought not only to give information, but to guide opinion", wrote the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica . In The Encyclopédie and the Age of Revolution , a work published in conjunction with a 1989 exhibition of the Encyclopédie at the University of California, Los Angeles , Clorinda Donato writes the following: The encyclopedians successfully argued and marketed their belief in
536-619: A play called Les Philosophes to criticize the Encyclopédie . When Abbé André Morellet , one of the contributors to the Encyclopédie , wrote a mock preface for it, he was sent to the Bastille due to allegations of libel. To defend themselves from controversy, the encyclopedia's articles wrote of theological topics in a mixed manner. Some articles supported orthodoxy, and some included overt criticisms of Christianity. To avoid direct retribution from censors, writers often hid criticism in obscure articles or expressed it in ironic terms. Nonetheless,
603-429: A prospectus for the Encyclopédie was published to attract subscribers to the project. This four page prospectus was illustrated by Jean-Michel Papillon, and accompanied by a plan, stating that the work would be published in five volumes from June 1746 until the end of 1748. The text was translated by Mills and Sellius, and it was corrected by an unnamed person, who appears to have been Denis Diderot . The prospectus
670-502: A radical work by Helvétius that caused a public scandal upon its release. The Court eventually revoked the royal privilege and the Parliament ordered the book to be burned. On another occasion, when he was impressed with Rousseau's Emile, or On Education , Malesherbes worked around his own agency to coordinate the clandestine publication of the book. Malesherbes applied his broader criticisms of government inefficiency and privilege to
737-506: A spirit of Independence and revolt, and...laying the foundations of an edifice of error, for the corruption of morals and religion, and the promotion of unbelief." Following the publication of the seventh volume, on the initiative of the Parlement of Paris , the French government suspended the encyclopedia's privilège in 1759. Despite these issues, work continued "in secret," partially because
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#1732863339841804-425: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Guillaume-Chr%C3%A9tien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes ( French pronunciation: [ɡijom kʁetjɛ̃ də lamwaɲɔ̃ də malzɛʁb] , 6 December 1721 – 22 April 1794), often referred to as Malesherbes or Lamoignon-Malesherbes , was a French statesman and minister in
871-526: Is most famous for representing the thought of the Enlightenment . According to Denis Diderot in the article "Encyclopédie", the Encyclopédie' s aim was "to change the way people think" and for people to be able to inform themselves and to know things. He and the other contributors advocated for the secularization of learning away from the Jesuits . Diderot wanted to incorporate all of the world's knowledge into
938-446: Is only a few nodes away from " divination " and " black magic ". The authors of the Encyclopédie challenged religious authority. The authors, especially Diderot and d'Alembert, located religion within a system of reason and philosophy. They did not reject all religious claims, but believed theology and notions of God must be proven. Louis de Jaucourt therefore harshly criticized superstition as an intellectual error in his article on
1005-671: The Ancien Régime , and later counsel for the defense of Louis XVI . He is known for his vigorous criticism of royal abuses as President of the Cour des aides and his role, as director of censorship, in helping with the publication of the Encyclopédie . Despite his committed monarchism, his writings contributed to the development of liberalism during the French Age of Enlightenment . Born in Paris to
1072-463: The Constituent Assembly , were executed with him. As Malesherbes left prison to get into the sinister cart, his foot hit a stone and made him make a misstep. "That," he said, smiling sadly, "is a bad omen; in my place, a Roman would have returned." On 10 May, his older sister Anne-Nicole, Countess of Sénozan, 76, was executed on the same day as Madame Elisabeth , the king's sister. Malesherbes
1139-475: The Encyclopédie and hoped that the text could disseminate all this information to the public and future generations. Thus, it is an example of democratization of knowledge . It was also the first encyclopedia to include contributions from many named contributors, and it was the first general encyclopedia to describe the mechanical arts . In the first publication, seventeen folio volumes were accompanied by detailed engravings. Later volumes were published without
1206-530: The Encyclopédie could not seize the production plates for the Encyclopédie in Paris because those printing plates ostensibly existed only in Switzerland. Meanwhile, the actual production of volumes 8 through 17 quietly continued in Paris . In 1775, Charles Joseph Panckoucke obtained the rights to reissue the work. He issued five volumes of supplementary material and a two-volume index from 1776 to 1780. Some scholars include these seven "extra" volumes as part of
1273-425: The Encyclopédie expressed favor for laissez-faire ideals or principles of economic liberalism. Articles concerning economics or markets, such as "Economic Politics", generally favored free competition and denounced monopolies. Articles often criticized guilds as creating monopolies and approved of state intervention to remove such monopolies. The writers advocated extending laissez-faire principles of liberalism from
1340-441: The Encyclopédie , its title expanded. As of 1750, the full title was Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, par une société de gens de lettres, mis en ordre par M. Diderot de l'Académie des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de Prusse, et quant à la partie mathématique, par M. d'Alembert de l'Académie royale des Sciences de Paris, de celle de Prusse et de la Société royale de Londres. ("Encyclopedia: or
1407-474: The Journal introduced Mills as an English scholar who had been raised in France and who spoke both French and English as a native. The Journal reported that Mills had discussed the work with several academics, was zealous about the project, had devoted his fortune to support this enterprise, and was the sole owner of the publishing privilege. However, the cooperation fell apart later on in 1745. André le Breton ,
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#17328633398411474-425: The parlements in general. Malesherbes, as President of the cour des aides , criticized the proposal for over-centralizing the justice system and abolishing the hereditary " nobility of the robe ," which he believed had been a defender of the people and a check on royal power due to its independence. He published a strong remonstrance against the new system, and was banished to his country seat at Malesherbes . For
1541-544: The Ancien Régime. Other modern commentaries on Malesherbes have advanced similar arguments; George Kelly, for example, describes him as "Janus-faced." Malesherbes was also remembered with reverence by his great-grandson Alexis de Tocqueville ; the historian Roger Williams has pointed to this connection as a "legacy of liberalism." Encyclop%C3%A9die Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers ( French for 'Encyclopedia, or
1608-618: The King imprisoned and facing trial, Malesherbes volunteered to undertake his legal defense. He argued for the King's life, together with François Tronchet and Raymond Desèze , before the Convention , and it was his painful task to break the news of his condemnation to the king. After this effort, Malesherbes returned once more to the country, but in December 1793 he was arrested with his daughter, his son-in-law M. de Rosanbo, and his grandchildren. He
1675-417: The accession of Louis XVI ; it was at this point that he spearheaded the famous 1775 Remontrances of the cour des aides , which detailed the problems facing the regime and envisioned a total overhaul of fiscal policy. Louis XVI was so impressed with the plan—and fearful for the future of his government—that Malesherbes was appointed minister of the maison du roi in 1775. During the same year, Malesherbes
1742-413: The articles, several of its editors were sent to jail. Like most encyclopedias, the Encyclopédie attempted to collect and summarize human knowledge in a variety of fields and topics, ranging from philosophy to theology to science and the arts. The Encyclopédie was controversial for reorganizing knowledge based on human reason instead of by nature or theology. Knowledge and intellect branched from
1809-527: The capacity to spread. The Encyclopédie ' s influence continues today. Historian Dan O'Sullivan compares it to Misplaced Pages : Like Misplaced Pages, the Encyclopédie was a collaborative effort involving numerous writers and technicians. As do Wikipedians today, Diderot and his colleagues needed to engage with the latest technology in dealing with the problems of designing an up-to-date encyclopedia. These included what kind of information to include, how to set up links between various articles, and how to achieve
1876-472: The clergy or other censors, which threatened the publication of the project as well as the authors themselves. The King's Council suppressed the Encyclopédie in 1759. The Catholic Church , under Pope Clement XIII , placed it on its list of banned books . Prominent intellectuals criticized it, most famously Lefranc de Pompignan at the French Academy . A playwright, Charles Palissot de Montenoy , wrote
1943-519: The contributors still openly attacked the Catholic Church in certain articles with examples including criticizing excess festivals, monasteries, and celibacy of the clergy. The Encyclopédie is often seen as an influence for the French Revolution because of its emphasis on Enlightenment political theories. Diderot and other authors, in famous articles such as "Political Authority", emphasized
2010-562: The editors of the Encyclopédie was to gather all the knowledge in the world, Diderot and D'Alembert knew they would need various contributors to help them with their project. Many of the philosophes ( intellectuals of the French Enlightenment ) contributed to the Encyclopédie , including Diderot himself, Voltaire , Rousseau , and Montesquieu . The most prolific contributor was Louis de Jaucourt , who wrote 17,266 articles between 1759 and 1765, or about eight per day, representing
2077-513: The engravings, in order to better reach a wide audience within Europe. The Encyclopédie was originally conceived as a French translation of Ephraim Chambers 's Cyclopaedia (1728). Ephraim Chambers had first published his Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences in two volumes in London in 1728, following several dictionaries of arts and sciences that had emerged in Europe since
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2144-474: The first full issue of the Encyclopédie , for a total of 35 volumes, although they were not written or edited by the original authors. From 1782 to 1832, Panckoucke and his successors published an expanded edition of the work in some 166 volumes as the Encyclopédie Méthodique . That work, enormous for its time, occupied a thousand workers in production and 2,250 contributors. Since the objective of
2211-437: The grievances later cited by revolutionaries when he criticized the monarchy for its unfair and arbitrary taxation policies and profligate spending. Although he believed hierarchy was natural and desirable, he was concerned about its distortionary effects on administration and justice; indeed, he argued that the privileges of the nobility should be earned through service to France, not granted by birth. Malesherbes also stressed
2278-419: The importance of communication in governing, believing the King should be more engaged with public opinion and grievances. Malesherbes' moderate and reformist tendencies were on full display during his tenure at the Librairie. When he retired from his post, Voltaire wrote that "M. de Malesherbes tirelessly served the human spirit by giving to the press more liberty than it has ever had." Indeed, censorship at
2345-504: The late 17th century. This work became quite renowned, and four editions were published between 1738 and 1742. An Italian translation appeared between 1747 and 1754. In France a member of the banking family Lambert had started translating Chambers into French, but in 1745 the expatriate Englishman John Mills and German Gottfried Sellius were the first to actually prepare a French edition of Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopaedia for publication, which they entitled Encyclopédie . Early in 1745
2412-405: The literary leaders of Paris, including Diderot and Rousseau . In his view toward censorship, Malesherbes ordered that genuinely "obscene" books be confiscated, but that merely "licentious" ones should be ignored. This was done in the belief that without such a distinction, police might find themselves taking possession of the better part of many shopkeepers' inventories. He was instrumental in
2479-485: The market to the individual level, such as with privatization of education and opening of careers to all levels of wealth. At the same time, the Encyclopédie was a vast compendium of knowledge, notably on the technologies of the period, describing the traditional craft tools and processes. Much information was taken from the Descriptions des Arts et Métiers . These articles applied a scientific approach to understanding
2546-556: The mathematician Jean Paul de Gua de Malves . Among those hired by Malves were the young Étienne Bonnot de Condillac , Jean le Rond d'Alembert , and Denis Diderot . Within thirteen months, in August 1747, Gua de Malves was fired for being an ineffective leader. Le Breton then hired Diderot and d'Alembert to be the new editors. Diderot would remain as editor for the next 25 years, seeing the Encyclopédie through to its completion; d'Alembert would leave this role in 1758. As d'Alembert worked on
2613-406: The maximum readership. Approximate size of the Encyclopédie : Print run : 4,250 copies (note: even single-volume works in the 18th century seldom had a print run of more than 1,500 copies). Readex Microprint Corporation, New York, 1969. 5 volumes. The full text and images reduced to four double-spread pages of the original appearing on one folio-sized page of this printing. Later released by
2680-427: The mechanical and production processes, and offered new ways to improve machines to make them more efficient. Diderot felt that people should have access to "useful knowledge" that they can apply to their everyday life. The Encyclopédie played an important role in the intellectual foment leading to the French Revolution . "No encyclopaedia perhaps has been of such political importance, or has occupied so conspicuous
2747-486: The next three years, Malesherbes dedicated himself primarily to travel and gardening. Indeed, he had always been an enthusiastic botanist; his avenue at Malesherbes was world-famous; he had written against Buffon and in favor of Carl Linnaeus ' system of botanical classification; and he had been a member of the Académie des sciences since 1750. Malesherbes was recalled to Paris with the reconstituted cour des aides on
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2814-446: The place of publication. However, the title pages of the subsequent text volumes, 8 through 17, published together in 1765, show Neufchastel as the place of publication. Neuchâtel is safely across the French border in what is now part of Switzerland but which was then an independent principality, where official production of the Encyclopédie was secure from interference by agents of the French state. In particular, regime opponents of
2881-471: The potential of reason and unified knowledge to empower human will and thus helped to shape the social issues that the French Revolution would address. Although it is doubtful whether the many artisans, technicians, or laborers whose work and presence are interspersed throughout the Encyclopédie actually read it, the recognition of their work as equal to that of intellectuals, clerics, and rulers prepared
2948-490: The practice of censorship, as well. He defended his more permissive censorship regime by arguing that banning too many books would stifle the book trade and make enforcement unfeasible. Furthermore, he broke with Librairie tradition by refusing to grant favors to nobles who requested that a particular book be either published or blocked. Decades after his retirement from the Librairie, in 1788, Malesherbes published his Mémoires sur la Liberté de la Presse , where he critiqued
3015-417: The project had highly placed supporters, such as Malesherbes and Madame de Pompadour . The authorities deliberately ignored the continued work; they thought their official ban was sufficient to appease the church and other enemies of the project. During the "secretive" period, Diderot accomplished a work of subterfuge. The title pages of volumes 1 through 7, published between 1751 and 1757, claimed Paris as
3082-581: The public." Indeed, Malesherbes now adopted the Revolutionary language of the "nation," and argued that the nation can only come to know the truth through free discussion, which is more effective than censorship at preventing the spread of "error." He had not discarded the concept of censorship, however; instead, he envisaged a voluntary censorship scheme, which would guarantee authors immunity from subsequent judicial prosecution for their ideas if they obtained official approval before publishing. Starting only
3149-521: The publication of the Encyclopédie , to the consternation of the Church and particularly the Jesuits. In 1771, following the dismissal of Choiseul late the preceding year and at the instigation of Madame du Barry and the duc d'Aiguillon , the Cour des Aides was dissolved for its opposition to a new method of administering justice devised by Maupeou , who planned to greatly diminish its powers and those of
3216-486: The publisher commissioned to manage the physical production and sales of the volumes, cheated Mills out of the subscription money, claiming for example that Mills's knowledge of French was inadequate. In a confrontation Le Breton physically assaulted Mills. Mills took Le Breton to court, but the court decided in Le Breton's favour. Mills returned to England soon after the court's ruling. For his new editor, Le Breton settled on
3283-442: The relationship between individuals and the general will . The natural state of humanity, according to the authors, is barbaric and unorganized. To balance the desires of individuals and the needs of the general will, humanity requires civil society and laws that benefit all persons. Writers, to varying degrees, criticized Thomas Hobbes ' notions of a selfish humanity that requires a sovereign to rule over it. In terms of economics,
3350-422: The rioters motivated either by scarcity of bread, sympathy for representative government, or a combination. Due to the pressure, Lamoignon retired on 14 September 1788, and rioting erupted again. Crowds tried to burn down Lamoignon's house, the troops were called out, and to quote the anarchist Peter Kropotkin , "there was a horrible slaughter of poor folk who could not defend themselves." In December 1792, with
3417-419: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Malesherbes . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Malesherbes&oldid=1170243423 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
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#17328633398413484-413: The shift of the origin of political authority from divinity or heritage to the people. This Enlightenment ideal, espoused by Rousseau and others, advocated that people have the right to consent to their government in a form of social contract. Another major, contentious component of political issues in the Encyclopédie was personal or natural rights. Articles such as "Natural Rights" by Diderot explained
3551-433: The small minority who were persecuted for writing articles belittling what they viewed as unreasonable customs—thus weakening the might of the Catholic Church and undermining that of the monarchy—did not envision that their ideas would encourage a revolution. Following is a list of notable contributors with their area of contribution (for a more detailed list, see Encyclopédistes ): Due to the controversial nature of some of
3618-579: The state of pre-Revolutionary France made it impossible for Malesherbes to withdraw from political life. In 1787, he authored an essay on Protestant rights that did much to procure civil recognition for them in France; later that year, his Mémoire to the King detailed what he saw as the catastrophic state of affairs created by the monarchy, which was rapidly making "future calamities" inevitable. In 1788, rioting rocked France in Provence, Languedoc, Rousillon, Béarn, Flanders, Franche-Comté and Burgundy, most of
3685-407: The system of censorship he had been charged with enforcing. On the eve of the French Revolution , he defended freedom of the press on the grounds of encouraging public debate: under a censorship regime, only the most extreme authors would take the risk of publishing on sensitive topics, and the public would be deprived of the views of the "modest and reasonable Authors" who "would be the most useful to
3752-493: The teachings of the Catholic Church could be treated as authoritative in matters of science. The editors also refused to treat the decisions of political powers as definitive in intellectual or artistic questions. Some articles talked about changing social and political institutions that would improve their society for everyone. Given that Paris was the intellectual capital of Europe at the time and that many European leaders used French as their administrative language, these ideas had
3819-402: The terrain for demands for increased representation. Thus the Encyclopédie served to recognize and galvanize a new power base, ultimately contributing to the destruction of old values and the creation of new ones (12). While many contributors to the Encyclopédie had no interest in radically reforming French society, the Encyclopédie as a whole pointed that way. The Encyclopédie denied that
3886-403: The three categories of human thought, whereas all other perceived aspects of knowledge, including theology, were simply branches or components of these human-made categories. The introduction to the Encyclopédie , D'Alembert's " Preliminary Discourse ", is considered an important exposition of Enlightenment ideals. Among other things, it presents a taxonomy of human knowledge (see Fig. 3), which
3953-524: The time was not perceived as automatically inimical to the Enlightenment ; several leading philosophes were employed as censors, including Diderot and d'Alembert . Although he believed that books attacking governmental authority and religion should be suppressed, Malesherbes also frequently overruled censors to permit the publication of philosophical works that had been flagged as dangerous. In one notable case, Malesherbes granted royal privilege, meaning official sanction and exclusive publication rights, to
4020-634: The topic. The writers further doubted the authenticity of presupposed historical events cited in the Bible and questioned the validity of miracles, such as the Resurrection. However, some contemporary scholars argue the skeptical view of miracles in the Encyclopédie may be interpreted in terms of " Protestant debates about the cessation of the charismata ." These challenges led to suppression from church and state authorities. The Encyclopédie and its contributors endured many attacks and attempts at censorship by
4087-446: The work. The Encyclopédie sold 4,000 copies during its first twenty years of publication and earned a profit of 2 million livres for its investors. Because of its occasional radical contents, the Encyclopédie caused much controversy in conservative circles, and after the publication of the second volume, it was briefly suspended from publishing by royal edict of 1752. Joly de Fleury accused it of "destroying royal authority, fomenting
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#17328633398414154-483: Was also elected to the Académie française . He held office as a royal minister only nine months; the Court proved intransigent in its opposition to his proposals for fiscal restraint and other reforms, including curtailing the arbitrary issuance of lettres de cachet , and he soon found himself bereft of political support. On retiring from the ministry with Turgot in 1776, he again spent some time at his country seat. But
4221-461: Was an act of truest self-devotion in him to sacrifice himself for a king who had done little or nothing for him. More recently, the French scholar François Moureau has critiqued this "hagiographic" tradition, emphasizing instead the contradictions in Malesherbes' career: he was shaped both by an openness to new Enlightenment ideas and by his commitment to fulfilling his role as a public servant within
4288-611: Was brought back to Paris and imprisoned with his family for "conspiracy with the emigrants". The family was imprisoned in the Prison Portes-Libres , and in April 1794 they were guillotined in Paris. His son-in-law, Louis Le Peletier de Rosanbo, was guillotined on 21 April 1794. On 22 April 1794, his daughter Antoinette, granddaughter Aline and her husband Jean-Baptiste de Chateaubriand, the deputés Isaac René Guy le Chapelier and Jacques Guillaume Thouret , four times elected president of
4355-412: Was inspired by Francis Bacon 's The Advancement of Learning . The three main branches of knowledge are: "Memory"/History, "Reason"/Philosophy, and "Imagination"/Poetry. This tree of knowledge was created to help readers evaluate the usefulness of the content within the Encyclopédie , and to organize its content. Notable is the fact that theology is ordered under "philosophy" and that "Knowledge of God"
4422-513: Was reviewed quite positively and cited at some length in several journals. The Mémoires pour l'histoire des sciences et des beaux arts journal was lavish in its praise: "here are two of the greatest efforts undertaken in literature in a very long time" ( voici deux des plus fortes entreprises de Littérature qu'on ait faites depuis long-temps ). The Mercure Journal in June 1745, printed a 25-page article that specifically praised Mills' role as translator;
4489-432: Was the grand-father of François-René de Chateaubriand 's sister in law, Aline de Chateaubriand. Although he remained a committed royalist until his death, Malesherbes was hardly untouched by the radical Enlightenment currents that transformed France. He was influenced by his reading of Fénelon and Montesquieu and his friendships with Rousseau and Turgot . On multiple occasions throughout his career, he recognized
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