Nicolas Fréret (French:[fʁeʁɛ]; 15 February 1688 – 8 March 1749) was a French scholar.
He was born inParis on 15 February 1688. His father wasprocureur to theparlement of Paris, and destined him to the profession of thelaw. His first tutors were the historianCharles Rollin and FatherDesmolets (1677–1760). Amongst his early studies history, chronology and mythology held a prominent place.[1]
To please his father he studied law and began to practise at thebar; but the force of his genius soon carried him onto his own path. At nineteen he was admitted to a society of learned men before whom he read memoirs on the religion of theGreeks, on the worship ofBacchus, ofCeres, ofCybele, and ofApollo. He was hardly twenty-six years of age when he was admitted as pupil to the Academy of Inscriptions. One of the first memoirs which he read was a learned and critical discourse,Sur l'origine des Francs (1714). He maintained that theFranks were a league ofSouth German tribes and not, according to the legend then almost universally received, a nation of free men deriving from Greece orTroy, who had kept their civilization intact in the heart of a barbarous country. These views excited great indignation in the AbbéVertot, who denounced Fréret to the government as a libeller of the monarchy. Alettre de cachet was issued, and Fréret was sent to theBastille.[1]
During his three months of confinement he studiedXenophon, the fruit of which appeared later in his memoir on theCyropaedia. From the time of his liberation in March 1715 his life was uneventful. In January 1716 he was received as associate of the Academy of Inscriptions and in December 1742 he was made perpetual secretary. He worked without intermission for the interests of the academy, not even claiming any property in his own writings, which were printed in theRecueil de l'academie des inscriptions.[1]
The list of his memoirs, many of them posthumous, occupies four columns of theNouvelle Biographie générale. They treat of history, chronology, geography, mythology and religion. Throughout he appears as the keen, learned and original critic; examining into the comparative value of documents, distinguishing between the mythical and the historical, and separating traditions with an historical element from purefables andlegends. He rejected the extreme pretensions of the chronology ofEgyptian origin for theChinese civilisation andcharacters,[2] and at the same time controverted the scheme of SirIsaac Newton as too limited. He investigated the mythology not only of the Greeks, but of theCelts, the Germans, the Chinese and theIndians. He was a vigorous opponent of the theory (euhemerism) that the stories of mythology may be referred to historic originals. He also suggested that Greek mythology owed much to thePhoenicians andEgyptians.[1]
He was one of the first scholars of Europe to undertake the study of the Chinese language, under the guidance ofArcadio Huang, a Chinese man working as translator and librarian for kingLouis XIV;[3] and in this he was engaged at the time of his committal to the Bastille. He died in Paris on 8 March 1749.[1]
After his death several works of anatheistic character were falsely attributed to him, and were long believed to be his. The most famous of these are theExamen critique des apologistes de la religion chrétienne (1766), and theLettre de Thrasybule à Leucippe, printed in London about 1768.[1]
An inaccurate edition of Fréret's works was published in 1796–1799. A new and complete edition was projected byJacques Joseph Champollion-Figeac, but of this only the first volume appeared (1825). It contains a life of Fréret. His manuscripts, after passing through many hands, were deposited in the library of the institute. The best account of his works isExamen critique des ouvrages composes par Fréret inC. A. Walckenaer'sRecueil des notices, &c. (1841–1850). See alsoQuérard'sFrance litteraire.[1]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fréret, Nicolas".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 208.