Henri Justel (1619–1693) was a French scholar and royal administrator, and also a bibliophile and librarian. He is known also as Henry Justel and Henricus Justellus. He was son of the scholar Christophe Justel. He acted as a secretary to

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

. A

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

, he left France in 1681, just ahead of the

revocation of the Edict of Nantes The Edict of Fontainebleau (22 October 1685) was an edict issued by French King Louis XIV and is also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes (1598) had granted Huguenots the right to practice their religion without s ...

, aware in advance of its implications for him. He emigrated to England, where he became a royal librarian at St. James's Palace, continuing to serve under William III.

Networking

As a well-connected intellectual and savant, he corresponded with John Locke, with

Robert Boyle Robert Boyle (; 25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of ...

Edmond Halley Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; – ) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720. From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, H ...

and

Henry Oldenburg Henry Oldenburg (also Henry Oldenbourg) FRS (c. 1618 as Heinrich Oldenburg – 5 September 1677), was a German theologian, diplomat, and natural philosopher, known as one of the creators of modern scientific peer review. He was one of the fo ...

of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, and with

Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathem ...

and

Antoine Arnauld Antoine Arnauld (6 February 16128 August 1694) was a French Catholic theologian, philosopher and mathematician. He was one of the leading intellectuals of the Jansenist group of Port-Royal and had a very thorough knowledge of patristics. Cont ...

. He knew

John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's diary, or ...

also, and appears in his ''

Diary A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digital. A personal ...

''. He knew

Melchisédech Thévenot Melchisédech (or Melchisédec) Thévenot (c. 1620 – 29 October 1692) was a French author, scientist, traveler, cartographer, orientalist, inventor, and diplomat. He was the inventor of the spirit level and is also famous for his popular posthumo ...

, the traveller and like-minded friend, and made a ''Recueil'' or collection of travels. He also ran a small 'academy', or intellectual club.This is mentioned i
this paper (PDF)
by David S. Lux and Harold J. Cook. He was one of the central members of the '' République des Lettres'', as his friend

Pierre Bayle Pierre Bayle (; 18 November 1647 – 28 December 1706) was a French philosopher, author, and lexicographer. A Huguenot, Bayle fled to the Dutch Republic in 1681 because of religious persecution in France. He is best known for his '' Histori ...

called it, of the later seventeenth century. These connections included Catholic churchmen, such as Daniel Huet and Richard Simon.

Works

* ''Bibliotheca iuris canonici veteris'' (1661) editor with G. Voellus, based on his father's work left in manuscript * ''Recueil de Divers Voyages Faits en Afrique et en l'Amerique'' (1674)

References

* P. Dally, "Les Justel", II, "Henry Justel (1620-1693)", ''Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire du Protestantisme français'', LXXIX, 1930, p. 10 * Louis Alexandre Bergounioux, ''L'esprit de polémique et les querelles savantes vers le milieu du XVIIe siècle : Marc Antoine Dominici (1605?-1650), un controversiste quercynois ami de Pascal''. Paris, 1936, p. 183, "Baptême Henry Justel, 1619, 25 novembre (…) Henry âgé de 9 jours."

Notes

External links

*
Old dictionary entry
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Justel, Henri 1620 births 1693 deaths French scholars French librarians 17th-century French people Fellows of the Royal Society Huguenots