Louis de Beaufort (6 October 1703 – 11 August 1795) was a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

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historian best known for his critical approach to the history of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. His brother was Daniel Cornelius de Beaufort (1700-1788). Born in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

to a French family of Huguenots, he lived in

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and

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

and worked as a personal tutor to the Prince of Hesse-Hombourg while at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

(1739-42). In 1738 he published at

the ''Dissertation sur l'incertitude des cinq prèmiers siècles de l'histoire romaine (A Dissertation Upon the Uncertainty of the First Five Centuries of Roman History)'', in which he questioned the value of even the classical sources of the highest repute, such as

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditiona ...

and

Dionysius of Halicarnassus Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( grc, Διονύσιος Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἁλικαρνασσεύς, ; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary sty ...

, for writing the history of the origins of ancient Rome, and pointed out by what methods and by the aid of what documents a truly scientific basis might be given to its history. While this was not an unprecedented argument, Beaufort made his case particularly forcefully and pushed against the traditional and less critical approaches adopted by esteemed historians of the time such as

Charles Rollin Charles Rollin (January 30, 1661 in Paris - December 14, 1741 in Paris) was a French historian and educator, whose popularity in his time combined with becoming forgotten by later generations makes him an epithet, applied to historians such as J ...

. A German, Christopher Saxius, endeavoured to refute Beaufort's argument in a series of articles published in vols. i.-iii. of the ''Miscellanea Liviensia''. Beaufort replied by some brief and ironic ''Remarques'' in the appendix to the second edition of his ''Dissertation'' (1750). He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in October 1746 and would move to Maastricht where he died in 1795. He also wrote an ''Histoire de Cesar Germanicus'' (Leiden, 1761), and ''La République romaine, ou plan general de l'ancien gouvernement de Rome'' (The Hague, 1766, 2 vols

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

). Though not a scholar of the first rank, Beaufort has at least the merit of having been a pioneer in raising the question, afterwards elaborated by Niebuhr, as to the credibility of early Roman history and the importance of source criticism.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beaufort Writers from The Hague 1703 births 1795 deaths French scholars of Roman history French classical scholars Fellows of the Royal Society

Louis Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis ( ...