Pierre-Joseph Alary

Pierre-Joseph Alary (March 19th 1689 with Paris - December 15th 1770) is a man of the church and French man of letters.

Prior of Gournay-sur-Marne, he is under-tutor of Louis XV and attends the living room of Madam de Lambert. He is elected member of the French Academy in 1723, election which Bachaumont comments on thus: “It was the son of an apothecary, who by his intrigues étoit arrived at fortune. One does not know too much with which title it was sat in the sanctuary of the Muses, because one knows no work of him. However it étoit fine talker, beautiful man & très-bien come from the women; what at more one of its fellow-members held literary place of merit. ” Its successor with the Academy, Strong Gabriel-Henri, brushes very an other portrait of him: “This modest scientist sought the darkness as glory is sought. He told much, and one always listened; it is that he had seen as a philosopher, and that he spoke as a society man: it was the taste which implemented the treasures of the study and the experiment. ”

In 1724, the Alary abbot founds the Club of the Mezzanine where will find a score among the most beautiful spirits heralding the Age of Enlightenment, among which Montesquieu, Helvétius, the marquis d' Argenson, the abbot Saint-Pierre, Madam of Deffand as well as future the Madam de Pompadour. They meet each Saturday in the residence of the president Hénault, Place Vendôme with Paris, to discuss there political and economy. Having had wind that it were woven there of the perhaps dangerous doctrines, because in particular opposite with the Mercantilisme, Louis XV made close the Club in 1731.

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