Étienne Lauréault de Foncemagne (8 May 1694 à Orléans

Orléans

-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...

 - 26 September 1779 à Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

) was a French churchman and scholar.

Life and work

An Oratorian and professor, he was elected to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres

The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France.-History:...

 in 1722 and to the Académie française

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,...

 in 1736. "Choosing him did not much enrich us, but at least it didn't make the public groan" commented the abbé d'Olivet

Pierre-Joseph Thoulier d'Olivet

Pierre-Joseph Thoulier d'Olivet, Abbot of Olivet was a French abbot, writer, grammarian and translator. He was elected the fourth occupant of Académie française seat 31....

, who called him "A man little-charged with literature, but he passes for knowing quite a bit about French history.".