, deacon of the church of Aix, was born in 1692, at Brignolles in Provence,
, deacon of the church of Aix, was
born in 1692, at Brignolles in Provence, of a mercantile
family. He was educated in his own country, but came
young to Paris, where his literary taste and talents procured him many friends, by whose assistance he increased
his stores of knowledge, and as his income was very
limited, entered upon a course of literary labours. He
was a contributor, as far as vol. XIX. to the “Bibliotheque
frangotse,
” a well-known journal printed in Holland; and
when Desfontaines was obliged to discontinue his “Nouvelliste du Parnasse,
” (in which Granet had written) and
obtained permission to carry it on again under another
title, he engaged Granet' s services in this new undertaking
called “Observations sur les ecrits modernes.
” It began in
Reflexions sur les ouvrages de
litterature.
” This he extended as far as twelve volumes.
It contains many extracts and remarks given with taste
and judgment, but others that are merely repetitions of
what he had written for the “Observations sur les ecrits
modernes,
” He had also a trick of inserting letters to
himself, when he wished to publish satire without being
accountable for it, but it is not thought that this disguise
was of much avail. It was perhaps his misfortune that he
was. obliged by the narrowness of his circumstances to employ himself thus on the labours of others, and in preparing
new editions, when he might have executed original works
that would have done him credit. Indeed a few months
before his death he hinted to his friends that necessity
only had forced him to this drudgery, and that he had no
consolation but in the hope that he should one clay or othet
be at liberty to employ his talents in a more creditable
way. He had learned English, and in order to make that
a source of profit, translated sir Isaac Newton’s “Chronology,
” which he published at Paris in Bibliotheque Francoise,
”
and, probably by way of blind, speaks very differently
there of some of his contemporaries, from what he had
advanced in his preface. In short he appears to have perfectly understood the trade of reviewing. One of his best
editions is that of the works of M, de Launoy, which was
published at Geneva, 10 vols. fol. with a valuable preface,
a life, and a “Launoiana,
” consisting of very curious articles. Moreri gives a numerous list of other editions and
publications to which he wrote prefaces and notes. He
died at Paris April 2, 1741, and a spirited eloge was written on him by the abbe Desfontaines.