Gabriel-Henri Gaillard
Encyclopedia
Gabriel-Henri Gaillard French
historian
, was born at Ostel, Picardy
.
He was educated for the bar, but after finishing his studies adopted a literary career, ultimately devoting his chief attention to history. He was already a member of the Academy of Inscriptions and, Belles-lettres (1760), when, after the publication of the three first volumes of his Histoire de la rivalité de la France et d'Angleterre, he was elected to the French Academy
(1771); and when Napoleon created the Institute he was admitted into its third class (Académie française) in 1803. For forty years he was the intimate friend of Malesherbes
, whose life (1805) he wrote. He died at St Firmin, near Chantilly
, on the 13th of February 1806.
Gaillard is painstaking and impartial in his statement of facts, and his style is correct and elegant, but the unity of his narrative is somewhat destroyed by digressions, and by his method of treating war, politics, civil administration, and ecclesiastical affairs under separate heads.
His most important work is his Histoire de la rivalité de la France et de l'Angleterre (in 11 vols., 1771–1777); and among his other works may be mentioned:
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France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, was born at Ostel, Picardy
Picardy
This article is about the historical French province. For other uses, see Picardy .Picardy is a historical province of France, in the north of France...
.
He was educated for the bar, but after finishing his studies adopted a literary career, ultimately devoting his chief attention to history. He was already a member of the Academy of Inscriptions and, Belles-lettres (1760), when, after the publication of the three first volumes of his Histoire de la rivalité de la France et d'Angleterre, he was elected to the French Academy
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
(1771); and when Napoleon created the Institute he was admitted into its third class (Académie française) in 1803. For forty years he was the intimate friend of Malesherbes
Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes
Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes , often referred to as Malesherbes or Lamoignon-Malesherbes, was a French statesman, minister, and afterwards counsel for the defence of Louis XVI.-Biography:...
, whose life (1805) he wrote. He died at St Firmin, near Chantilly
Chantilly, Oise
Chantilly is a small city in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune in the department of Oise.It is in the metropolitan area of Paris 38.4 km...
, on the 13th of February 1806.
Gaillard is painstaking and impartial in his statement of facts, and his style is correct and elegant, but the unity of his narrative is somewhat destroyed by digressions, and by his method of treating war, politics, civil administration, and ecclesiastical affairs under separate heads.
His most important work is his Histoire de la rivalité de la France et de l'Angleterre (in 11 vols., 1771–1777); and among his other works may be mentioned:
- Essai de la rhétorique française à l'usage des demoiselles (1745), often reprinted, and in 1822 with a life of the author
- Histoire de Marie de Bourgogne (1757)
- Histoire de François I (5 vols., 1776–1779)
- Histoire des grandes querelles entre Charles V. et François II (2 vols., 1777)
- Histoire dc Charlemagne (2 vols., 1782)
- Histoire de la rivalité de la France et de l'Espagne (8 vols., 1801)
- Dictionnaire historique (6 vols., 1789–1804), making part of the Encyclopédie methodique
- Mélanges littéraires, containing éloges on Charles VCharles V of FranceCharles V , called the Wise, was King of France from 1364 to his death in 1380 and a member of the House of Valois...
, Henry IVHenry IV of FranceHenry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
, DescartesRené DescartesRené Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
, CorneillePierre CorneillePierre Corneille was a French tragedian who was one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine...
, La FontaineJean de La FontaineJean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional...
, Malesherbes and others.
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