Louis-Marcelin de Fontanes
Illustration — Louis Jean-Pierre de Fontanes. Louis Jean-Pierre, marquis de Fontanes (6 March 175717 March 1821) was a French poet and politician.
Also recorded as Jean-Pierre-Louis de Fontanes · Louis, Marquis de Fontanes · Marquis Louis de Fontanes
Louis-Marcelin de Fontanes

Charles Bour (lithographe), Félix Philippoteaux (illustrateur) · Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de la Sorbonne · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 1757 · Niort.
- Nationality
- France
- Occupation
- politician · poet · writer · literary critic
- Honours
- Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour
- Languages
- French
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Illustration — Louis Jean-Pierre de Fontanes. Louis Jean-Pierre, marquis de Fontanes (6 March 175717 March 1821) was a French poet and politician.
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wikidata · Q1296217 · wikipedia · Louis-Marcelin de Fontanes
In this article
Biography
Biography
Born in Niort (Deux-Sèvres), he belonged to a noble Protestant family of Languedoc which had been reduced to poverty by the revocation of the edict of Nantes. His father Jean-Pierre Marcellin de Fontanes (1719–1774) and grandfather remained Protestant, but he was himself brought up as a Catholic. His parents died in 1774–1775, and in 1777 Fontanes went to Paris, where he found a friend in the dramatist Jean-François Ducis. His first published poems, some of which were inspired by English models, appeared in the Almanach des Muses; Le Cri de mon coeur, describing his own sad childhood, in 1778; and La Fort de Navarre in 1780. His translation from Alexander Pope, L'Essai sur l'homme, was published with an elaborate preface in 1783, and La Chartreuse and Le Jour des morts in the same year, Le Verger in 1788 and his Epître sur l'édit en faveur des non-catholiques, and the Essai sur l'astronomie in 1789. Fontanes was a moderate reformer, and in 1790 he became joint-editor of the Modérateur. He married at Lyon in 1792, and his wife's first child was born during their flight from the siege of that town. Fontanes was in hiding in Paris when the four citizens of Lyon were sent to the Convention to protest against the cruelties of Collot d'Herbois. The petition was drawn up by Fontanes, and the authorship being discovered, he fled from Paris and found shelter at Sevran, near Livry, and afterwards at Andelys. On the fall of Robespierre he was made professor of literature in the École Centrale des Quatre-Nations, and he was one of the original members of the Institute. In the Memorial, a journal edited by Jean-François de la Harpe, he discreetly advocated reaction to the monarchical principle. He was exiled by the Directory and made his way to London, where he was closely associated with Chateaubriand. He soon returned to France, and his admiration for Napoleon, who commissioned him to write an éloge on George Washington, secured his return to the Institute and his political promotion. In 1802 he was elected to the legislative chamber, of which he was president from 1804 to 1810. Other honors and titles followed. He has been accused of servility to Napoleon, but he had the courage to remonstrate with him on the judicial murder of the duc d'Enghien, and as grand master of the University of Paris (1808–1815) he consistently supported religious and monarchical principles. He acquiesced in the Bourbon restoration, and was made a marquis in 1817. He died on March 17, 1821, in Paris, leaving eight cantos of an unfinished epic poem entitled La Grèce sauvée. The verse of Fontanes is polished and musical in the style of the 18th century. It was not collected until 1839, when Sainte-Beuve edited the Œuvres (2 vols.) of Fontanes, with a sympathetic critical study of the author and his career. But by that time the Romantic movement was in the ascendant and Fontanes met with small appreciation.
Career and activity
Career and activity
Recorded positions include Pair of France, member of the Sénat conservateur, Grand Master of the University of France and member of the Académie française. He belonged to Académie Française, Académie des belles-lettres, sciences et arts de La Rochelle, Société nationale des Antiquaires de France and Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Rouen. He worked at Paris.
Identity
Identity
Louis-Marcelin de Fontanes is recorded as having received Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1757
Louis-Marcelin de Fontanes born at Niort.
1821
Louis-Marcelin de Fontanes died at Paris.
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Places
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Niort.
Birth place
Paris.
Death place
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Fontanes, Louis, Marquis de. 10. 608.
- 2.For more on this funeral oration, see Maurice Guerrini, Napoleon and Paris: Thirty Years of History, ed. and trans. Margery Weiner (New York: Walker and Company, 1970), 36.
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Died at
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Further particulars
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Further particulars
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The authorities additionally record the headings Jean-Pierre-Louis de Fontanes, Louis, Marquis de Fontanes and Marquis Louis de Fontanes. His recorded language was French. He was the child of Jean-Pierre Marcellin de Fontanes.
Identity and origins
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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