Pierre Adolphe Chéruel
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Pierre Adolphe Chéruel (January 17, 1809 – May 1, 1891) was a French historian. Chéruel was born at Rouen and educated at the
École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...
, becoming a fellow ('' agregé'') in 1830. His early studies were concerned with local history. His ''Histoire de Rouen sous la domination anglaise au XVe siècle'' (1840) and ''Histoire de Rouen pendant l'époque communale, 1550–1382'' (Rouen, 1843–1844), are major productions for a time when the archives were neither catalogued nor classified, and contain useful documents previously unpublished. His theses for the degree of doctor, ''De l'administration de Louis XIV d'après les Mémoires inédits d'Olivier d'Ormesson'' and ''De Maria Stuarta et Henrico III'' (1849), led him to the study of general history. The former was expanded afterwards under the title ''Histoire de l'administration monarchique en France depuis l'avènement de Philippe-Auguste jusqu'à la mort de Louis XIV'' (1855), and in 1855 he also published his ''Dictionnaire historique des institutions, mœurs et coutumes de la France'', of which many editions have appeared. These works may still be consulted for the 17th century, the period upon which Chéruel concentrated all his scientific activity. He edited successively the ''Journal d'Olivier Lefèvre d'Ormesson'' (1860–1862), interesting for the history of the '' parlement'' of Paris during the minority of King
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 ...
; ''Lettres du cardinal Mazarin pendant son ministère'' (9 vols, 1870–1891), continued by the vicomte Georges d'Avenel; and ''Mémoires du duc de Saint-Simon'', published for the first time according to the original manuscripts (2 editions, 1856–1858 and 1878–1881). To Saint-Simon he devoted two critical studies, which are acute but not definitive: ''Saint-Simon considéré comme historien de Louis XIV'' (1865) and ''Notice sur la vie et sur les mémoires du duc de Saint-Simon'' (1876). The latter may be considered as an introduction to the famous ''Mémoires''. Among his later writings were the ''Histoire de la France pendant la minorité de Louis XIV'' (4 volumes, 1880) and ''Histoire de la France sous le ministère de Mazarin'' (1882–1883). These two works are valuable for abundance of facts, precision of details, and clear and intelligent arrangement, but are characterized by a slightly frigid style. In their compilation Chéruel used a fair number of unpublished documents. To the student of the second half of the 17th century in France, the works of Chéruel are a mine of information.


References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheruel, Pierre Adolphe Writers from Rouen Members of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques 1809 births 1891 deaths École Normale Supérieure alumni French male non-fiction writers 19th-century French historians 19th-century French male writers