Pierre Robert Le Cornier de Cideville (2 September 1693 – 5 March 1776), was a French

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

and

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, co-founder of the

Academy of Rouen An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

. Cideville, who was born at

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

(

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

), the descendant by his mother, of the poet Chapelle, Boileau and

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...

's merry companion. He succeeded his father in his position of councilor to the Parliament of Normandy. In addition to his assiduous study of law, he managed to dabble in music, painting and poetry, having, at age eighteen, won a prize at the Palinods Academy of Rouen. Cideville was Voltaire's classmate at the

Lycée Louis-le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on rue Saint-Jacques in central Paris. It was founded in the ...

, and the latter professed, fifty years later, that they still were friends. In fact, Voltaire held Cideville's literary judgment in such high esteem that he did not hesitate to submit his writings to his review. Voltaire even came to seek refuge at his home in 1730 when legal action had been taken against him for some of his works. He allegedly wrote '' Éryphile'' et ''La Mort de César'' during his stay in Normandy. The correspondence of this major figure of the

Enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

in the provinces with Voltaire is a treasure trove for scholars of that era. Cideville possessed an epigrammatic talent which is evidenced in one of his letters where his recounts his pen-friend how Voltaire had to leave very hastily Déville on the day a farmer he had cured from a fever, mistook him for a sorcerer. Le Cornier of Cideville co-founded, along with Fontenelle, the Academy of Rouen, and he drafted its charter. He also endowed Rouen with a tuition-free art school, which was to play a key role in the development of pictorial art in

, when he managed to persuade Descamps, who was on his way to

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, to settle in Rouen instead before appointing him as its principal. Although they never went into print, there exists, among the manuscripts he bequeathed, along with his extensive library, to the Academy of Rouen, a collection entitled ''Poésies diverses et curieuses''. A second part of this collection entitled ''Journal depuis juin 1743 jusqu’en 1775'', can be found, with a portrait of its author, at the Public Library of Rouen. When Cideville died at

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, on 5 March 1776, his

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was delivered at the Academy of Rouen by Jean-Baptiste Haillet de Couronne.

Bibliography

* ''Voltaire inédit (notes to Cideville, counterfeiting of its works à Rouen, correspondence of Cideville with Voltaire, of Mme Du Châtelet with Cideville)'', Éd. J. Noury, Paris, Impr. nationale, 1895. * ''À Monsieur de Voltaire, historiographe de France'', Paris, Prault fils, 1745.

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Cornier de Cideville, Pierre-Robert Lawyers from Rouen French philanthropists 1695 births 1776 deaths French male writers 18th-century philanthropists