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Roland de la Platière, Jean Marie

(Encyclopedia)Roland de la Platière, Jean Marie zhäN märēˈ rôläNˈ də lä plätyĕrˈ [key], 1734–93, French revolutionary. An inspector general of commerce at Rouen and Amiens, he went to Paris in 1791 a...

Maurepas, Jean Frédéric Phélippeaux, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Maurepas, Jean Frédéric Phélippeaux, comte de zhäN frādārēkˈ fālēpōˈ kôNt də môrəpäˈ [key], 1701–81, French statesman. He succeeded his father as minister of state at 14, the post ...

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Rousseau, Jean Jacques ro͞osōˈ [key], 1712–78, Swiss-French philosopher, author, political theorist, and composer. Rousseau's influence on posterity has been equaled by only a few, and it is...

Desmarets, Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Desmarets, Nicolas nēkôläˈ dāmärāˈ [key], 1648–1721, French statesman; the nephew of Jean Baptiste Colbert. He became director of finances in 1703 and succeeded Michel Chamillart as controll...

Cambert, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Cambert, Robert rōbĕrˈ käNbĕrˈ [key], c.1628–1677, French composer; pupil of Chambonnières. His Pastorale d'Issy (1659) and other works are among the first real French operas. With the libret...

Sismondi, Jean Charles Léonard Simonde de

(Encyclopedia)Sismondi, Jean Charles Léonard Simonde de zhäN shärl lāônärˈ sēmôNdˈ də sēsmôNdēˈ [key], 1773–1842, Swiss historian, economist, and critic. A member of the circle of Mme de Staël, he...

Servan-Schreiber, Jean-Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Servan-Schreiber, Jean-Jacques, 1924–2006, French journalist, politician, and public intellectual, b. Paris, grad. École Polytechnique (1947). A political writer at Le Monde (1948–53), he moved o...

John Baptist de la Salle, Saint

(Encyclopedia)John Baptist de la Salle, Saint băptēstˈ də lä sälˈ [key], 1651–1719, French educator, founder of the Christian Brothers, b. Reims. He became a priest and canon of the cathedral. He spent his...

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