Supplement to the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica/Anquetil (Lewis)
ANQUETIL (Lewis Peter), a French historian, was born at Paris, on the 21st of January 1723. At the age of seventeen, he entered the congregation of St Genevieve, where he taught theology and literature with ability and success. He afterwards became Director of the academy at Rheims; and, in 1759, he was appointed Prior of the abbey de la Röe, in Anjou. Soon after this, he was sent, in the capacity of Director, to the college of Senlis. In 1766, he obtained the Curacy or Priory of Chateau-Renard, near Montargis, which he exchanged, at the commencement of the Revolution, for the Curacy of La Villette, in the neighbourhood of Paris. During the reign of terror, he was imprisoned at St Lazare. On the establishment of the National Institute, he was elected a member of the second class, and was soon afterwards employed in the office of the minister for foreign affairs. Endowed with a robust constitution, which was preserved by a natural equality of temper, and general moderation in diet, Anquetil was capable of very laborious exertions, and is said to have passed ten hours every day, regularly, in study. When upwards of eighty, he still meditated extensive literary undertakings; but he was carried off by death, in the midst of his projects and researches, on the 6th of September 1808, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. On the evening previous to this event, he is reported to have said to one of his friends, “Come and see a man who is dying full of life.”
As an author, M. Anquetil does not stand very high in the ranks of literature. He possessed more industry in research, than ability or judgment in execution. His style is censurable in many respects, and he appears to have been almost entirely destitute of the critical discernment and philosophical sagacity, which are requisite to form the character of a good historian. The following is a list of his principal works.
1. Histoire Civile et Politique de la ville de Reims, 1756-57, 3 vols. 12mo. The history is brought no farther down than 1657; a fourth volume should have been added, but it never appeared. Anquetil js said to have written this work in concert with one Felix de la Salle, and it is, perhaps, the best of all his productions. 2. Almanach de Reims, 1754, in 24mo. 3. L’Esprit de la Ligue, ou Histoire Politique des Troubles de France, pendant les 16 et 17 sièctes, 1767, 3 vols. 12mo. This work has been frequently reprinted. 4. Intrigue du Cabinet sous Henri IV. et sous Louis XIII. terminée par la Fronde, 1780, 4 vols. 12mo. 5. Louis XIV. sa Cour et le Regent, 1789, 4 vols. 12mo; reprinted In 1794, 5 vols. 12mo. 6. Vie du Marechal Villars, ecrit par lui-même, suivie de Journal du la Cour de 1724 à 1734, Paris, 1787, 4 vols. 12mo; reprinted in 1792. 7. Precis de l’Histoire Universelle, 1797, 9 vols. 12mo; reprinted in 1801 and 1807, in 12 vols. 12mo. This work has been translated into English, Spanish, and Italian. 8. Motifs des Guerres et des Traités de Paix de la France, pendant les regnes de Louis XIV. Louis XV. et Louis XVI. 1798, 8vo. 9. Histoire de France, depuis les Gaules jusqu’à la fin de la Monarchie, 1805 et seqq. 14 vols. 12mo. This work was composed in haste, and is of no great value. 10. Notice sur la vie de M. Anquetil du Perron. M. Anquetil likewise wrote several papers in the Memoirs of the Institute. See Biographie Universelle. (H.)