Pierre Daunou | |
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| Born | Pierre Claude François Daunou 18 August 1761 |
| Died | 20 June 1840(1840-06-20) (aged 78) |
| Known for | French statesman andhistorian |
Pierre Claude François Daunou (French pronunciation:[pjɛʁklodfʁɑ̃swadonu]; 18 August 1761 – 20 June 1840) was a French statesman of theFrench Revolution andEmpire. An author and historian, he served as the nation's archivist under both the Empire and theRestoration, contributed a volume to theHistoire littéraire de la France, and published more than twenty volumes of lectures he delivered when he held the chair of history and ethics at theCollège de France.
He was born atBoulogne-sur-Mer. After studying at the school theOratorians operates there, he joined the order in Paris in 1777. He was professor in variousseminaries from 1780 to 1787, when he wasordained a priest. He had by then published essays and poems that established his reputation in literary circles.
With the onset of the French Revolution, he supported theCivil Constitution of the Clergy; a proffered appointment to a highCatholic Church office failed to induce him to alter his position.[1]
Elected to theNational Convention by thePas-de-Calaisdépartement, he associated himself with the moderateGirondists and strongly opposed thedeath sentence imposed on KingLouis XVI. Daunou took little part in the Girondist clash with their radical opponents,The Mountain, but was involved in the events of his party's overthrow in the summer of 1793 and was imprisoned for almost a year.[1]
In December 1794 he returned to the convention and was the principal author of theConstitution of the Year III that established theDirectory in November 1795. It is probably because of his Girondinism that theCouncil of the Ancients was given the right of convoking theCouncil of Five Hundred outside Paris, an expedient which made possibleNapoleon Bonaparte'scoup d'état (the18 Brumaire) in 1799.[1]
Daunou also drew up the plans for the erection and organization of theInstitut de France. He was instrumental in crushing theRoyalist insurgency known as the13 Vendémiaire. He was elected by twenty-sevendépartements as member of the Council of Five Hundred and became its first president. He was ineligible for election as a director, having himself set the age qualification for that office at forty when he was thirty-four. When the government passed into the hands ofTalleyrand and his associates, Daunou returned briefly to literature, but in 1798 he was sent toRome to organize theRoman Republic.[1]
In 1799, Daunou returned the role of statesman, preparing theConstitution of the Year VIII, which established theConsulate, under which Napoleon held the position ofFirst Consul. He remained largely ambivalent towards Napoleon, but supported him againstPope Pius VII and the Papal States, providing him historical arguments in a scholarly treatiseSur la puissance temporelle du Pape (On the Temporal Power of the Papacy) in 1809.[1]
Nonetheless, he took little part in the new regime, of which he was resentful, and turned more and more to literature. At theRestoration in 1814, he was deprived of the post ofarchivist of the Empire, which he had held since 1807. In 1819 he became the chair of history andethics at theCollège de France; in that role, his courses were among the most famous of the period. With the advent of theJuly Monarchy in 1830, he regained his old post, now under the titlearchivist of the Kingdom. In 1839, Daunou was made apeer.[1]
TheEncyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition writes:
In politics Daunou was a Girondist without combativeness; a confirmedrepublican, who lent himself always to the policy of conciliation, but whose probity remained unchallenged. He belonged essentially to the centre, and lacked both the genius and the temperament which would secure for him a commanding place in a revolutionary era. As an historian his breadth of view is remarkable for his time; for although thoroughly imbued with the classical spirit of the 18th century, he was able to do justice to the middle ages. HisDiscours sur l'état des lettres au XIIIe siècle, in the sixteenth volume of theHistoire littéraire de France, is a remarkable contribution to that vast collection, especially as coming from an author so profoundly learned in the ancient classics.Daunou's lectures at the Collège de France, collected and published after his death, fill twenty volumes (Cours d'études historiques, 1842–1846). They deal principally with the criticism of sources and the proper method of writing history, and occupy an important place in the evolution of the scientific study of history in France. All his works were written in an elegant style; but apart from his share in the editing of theHistoriens de la France, they were mostly in the form of separate articles on literary and historical subjects. In character, Daunou was reserved and somewhat austere, preserving in his habits a strange mixture of bourgeois and monk. His indefatigable work as archivist in the time when Napoleon was transferring so many treasures to Paris won him the gratitude of later scholars.[1]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Daunou, Pierre Claude François".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 849–850.
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