Jean-Michel de Venture de Paradis (8 May 1739, Marseille – 16 May 1799,

Acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

, aged 60) was an 18th-century French orientalist and

dragoman A dragoman or Interpretation was an interpreter, translator, and official guide between Turkish-, Arabic-, and Persian-speaking countries and polities of the Middle East and European embassies, consulates, vice-consulates and trading posts. A ...

Biography

The son of a family of diplomats and military (King's interpreter in the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

), he studied at the

École des Jeunes de langues The École des Jeunes de langues was a language school founded by Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1669 to train interpreters and translators (then called dragomans after the Ottoman and Arabic word for such a figure, like Covielle in '' Le Bourgeois gent ...

, in the premises of the

collège Louis-le-Grand In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...

in Paris. After an internship at the Embassy of France in Constantinople, he held various positions of

drogoman A dragoman or Interpretation was an interpreter, translator, and official guide between Turkish-, Arabic-, and Persian-speaking countries and polities of the Middle East and European embassies, consulates, vice-consulates and trading posts ...

in Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunis and Algiers. He also participated as an interpreter to the inspection mission of the Levant, which was entrusted to

baron de Tott Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...

, secretary and interpreter of the Embassy of France in Constantinople. He returned to Paris in 1797 to occupy the chair of

Turkish language Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant sma ...

at the

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ( en, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French university specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. ...

. He was the oldest member of the

Commission des sciences et des arts The Commission des Sciences et des Arts (''Commission of the Sciences and Arts'') was a French scientific and artistic institute. Established on 16 March 1798, it consisted of 167 members, of which all but 16 joined Napoleon Bonaparte's conquest ...

and was appointed first interpreter (

military interpreter An interpreter officer or army interpreter is a commissioned officer of an armed force, who interprets and/or translates to facilitate military operation. Interpreter officers are used extensively in multinational operations in which two or more ...

) of the Armée d'Orient. He became a member of the

Institut d'Égypte The Institut d'Égypte or Egyptian Scientific Institute is a learned society in Cairo specializing in Egyptology. It was established in 1798 by Napoleon Bonaparte to carry out research during his Egyptian campaign and is the oldest scientific inst ...

22 August 1798, in the art and literature section.

Jean-Joseph Marcel Jean-Joseph Marcel (24 November 1776 – 11 March 1854) was a French printer and engineer. He was also a ''savant'' who accompanied Napoleon's 1798 campaign in Egypt as a member of the Commission des Sciences et des Arts, a corps of 167 technical ...

, who was his pupil says he died from dysentery,Édouard de Villiers du Terrage, ''Journal et souvenirs sur l'expédition d'Égypte, mis en ordre et publiés par le baron Marc de Villiers du Terrage'', Paris, E. Plon, Nourrit, 1899, et ''L'expédition d'Égypte 1798-1801, Journal et souvenirs d'un jeune savant'', Paris, Cosmopole, 2001 et 2003, p. 384 while others speak of plague. Another hypothesis assumes that he died April 19, 1799, at

Nazareth Nazareth ( ; ar, النَّاصِرَة, ''an-Nāṣira''; he, נָצְרַת, ''Nāṣəraṯ''; arc, ܢܨܪܬ, ''Naṣrath'') is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In ...

of illness following the

Siege of Acre Siege of Acre may refer to: *Siege of Acre (1104), following the First Crusade *Siege of Acre (1189–1191), during the Third Crusade *Siege of Acre (1263), Baibars laid siege to the Crusader city, but abandoned it to attack Nazareth. *Siege of Acr ...

' program on

France 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 ...

1 September 2010. Married June 14, 1774, in Cairo with Victoria Digeon, he had two daughters including Jeanne Venture de Paradis who in 1810 married the clockmaker Antoine Louis Breguet, son of the famous

Abraham-Louis Breguet Abraham-Louis Breguet (10 January 1747 – 17 September 1823), born in Neuchâtel, then a Prussian principality, was a horologist who made many innovations in the course of a career in watchmaking industry. He was the founder of the Bregue ...

, who is an ascendant of actress

Clémentine Célarié Clémentine Célarié (born 12 October 1957) is a French actress, writer, director and singer.

and the other daughter who married

Joseph Sulkowski Joseph Sulkowski (Józef Sułkowski, c. 1770, Palatinate of Poznań – 22 October 1798, Cairo, Egypt) was a Polish captain in the French Revolutionary Army and friend and aide de camp to Napoleon Bonaparte. He also became friends with Muiron, ...

, Polish aristocrat favorite aide of Napoleon Bonaparte during the

expedition of Egypt The French campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman territories of Ottoman Egypt, Egypt and Ottoman Syria, Syria, proclaimed to defend French First Republic, French tr ...

Bibliography

* ''Tunis et Alger au XVIIIe siècle'', Sindbad, 1999 * ''Alger au XVIIIe siècle'', Alger, Jourdan, 1898

References

External links

Jean-Michel Venture de Paradis (1739-1799)
on data.bnf.fr
''Venture de paradis ou un pionnier des études berbères''

* ttp://www.citedulivre-aix.com/goutdelorient/spip.php?rubrique9 ''Un savant à l’épreuve du terrain politique'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Venture de Paradis, Jean Michel de French orientalists 1739 births Writers from Marseille 1799 deaths Infectious disease deaths in Israel