Jean-Noël Paquot (1722–1803) was a Belgian

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, historian,

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

scholar and

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

Life

Paquot was born in

Florennes Florennes (; wa, Florene) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium. As of 1 January 2006, Florennes has a total population of 10,754. The total area is 133.55 km² which gives a population density of 81 inhabita ...

in 1722. In 1738 he enrolled at the

University of Louvain A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

, graduating Licentiate of Theology in 1751. From 1755 to 1771 he taught Hebrew at the

Collegium Trilingue The Collegium Trilingue, often also called Collegium trium linguarum, or, after its creator Collegium Buslidianum (French: Collège des Trois Langues, Dutch: Dry Tonghen), was founded in 1517 under the patronage of the humanist, Hieronymus van Bus ...

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

, where he was also librarian. He was stripped of his position after a sodomy trial. In subsequent years he lived in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and

Gembloux Gembloux (; wa, Djiblou; nl, Gembloers, ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium. On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 21,964 inhabitants. The total area is 95.86 km², yielding a population dens ...

. In 1782 he was stripped of his pension as court historiographer to

Empress Maria Theresa Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina (german: Maria Theresia; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was ruler of the Habsburg dominions from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position ''suo jure'' (in her own right). ...

, for having denied that the Austrian government had a historical claim to Saint-Hubert. On 1 February 1769 he was elected to the Société littéraire de Bruxelles, a precursor of the

Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium The Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium (french: Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, sometimes referred to as ') is the independent learned society of science and arts of the French Comm ...

."Jean Noël Paquot"
L'Académie / Who's who ? – Accessed 9 June 2017. In 1787 he moved to Liège to collaborate on an abortive project to found a university there. He died in

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

in 1803.

Works

He wrote a book encompassing the entire literary history of the Low Countries, in all languages, entitled ''Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire littéraire des dix-sept provinces des Pays-Bas, de la principauté de Liège et de quelques contrées voisines'' ("Memoirs for the literary history of the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands, the Principality of Liege, and some neighboring countries"), Leuven, 1763-1770, 18 volumes in octavo or in three folio volumes, Leuven, 1765-1770.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paquot, Jean-Noel 1722 births 1803 deaths Belgian bibliographers Belgian Hebraists Austrian Netherlands historians Academic staff of the Old University of Leuven People from Florennes Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium