Maillet, Benoit de

1. Dates

Born: Saint-Mihiel, Lorraine, 12 Apr. 1656

Died: Marseille, 13 Jan. 1738

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 82

2. Father

Occupation: Gentry

Le Mascrier calls Maillet a gentleman of Lorraine born to a distinguished and noble family. Maillet always realized, however, that he was not an aristocrat. This is the status I call gentry.

Maillet clearly had some money; sometimes it seemed as though he had wealth. At the least the family must have been affluent.

3. Nationality

Birth: French

Career: French, Middle Eastern

Death: French

4. Education

Schooling: No University

He received an excellent classical education. There is no mention of a university.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic, Heterodox

His system was materialistic, and it denied that the Biblical chronology could be correct.

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Geology

Subordinate: Natural History

His major work, Telliamed ou entretiens d'un philosophe indien avec un missionaire francois sur la diminution de la mer, la formation de la terre, l'origine de l'homme, etc. (Amsterdam, 1748), in essence an ultraneptunian theory of the earth, was based largely on his geological field observations made during extensive travels throughout Egypt and other Mediterranean countries. He argued that the Biblical chronology could not be correct. His theory and ideas influenced many leading naturalists for almost a century.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Personal Means, Government

There is no mention in any account of what he did until he was thirty-five and was travelling in the Middle East. He must have been living on his personal means.

1692-1708, general consul of the king of France at Cairo.

1712-1717 (or perhaps 1702-08), consul in Leghorn.

1717-1720, inspector of French establishments in the Levant and the Barbary states.

1720 retired to Marseille on a handsome pension.

8. Patronage

Type: Government Official

After being appointed through the influence of his protector, Chancellor Pontchartrain, general consul of the king of France at Cairo in 1692, Maillet held different diplomatic positions for about thirty years. He once (1702) was chosen as the king's envoy to Ethiopia, but Maillet declined the position.

Telliamed was dedicated to Cyrano de Bergerac--but it is established that the dedication was written by the Abbé Le Mascrier.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: None

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

He was associated with Le Mascrier.

Sources

1. Fritz Neubert, Einleitung in eine kritische Ausgabe von B. de Maillets Telliamed. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der franzosischen Aufklarungsliteratur, Romanische Studien, no.19, (Berlin, 1920). PC13.R76 no.19 Nouvelle biographie générale, 32, 885.
2. Marie Louise and Jean Dufrenoy, "Benoit de Maillet as Precursor to the Theory of Evolution," Archives internationale d'histoire des science, 7 (1954), 161-7.
3. Harriet D. Rothschild, "Benoit de Maillet's Leghorn Letters," "Benoit de Maillet's Marseilles Letters," "Benoit de Maillet's Letters to the Marquis de Caumont," "Benoit de Maillet's Cairo Letters," Studies on Voltaire and the 18th Century, 30 (1964), 351-75, 37 (1965), 109-45, 60 (1968), 311-38, and 169 (1977), 115-85. PQ2097. G32 Abbé Le Mascrier, "Vie de Monsieur de Maillelt," in Telliamed, (La Haye, 1755), pp. 1-23.

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email on geneological questions.