, perpetual secretary of the academy of inscriptions and belles lettres,
, perpetual secretary of the academy of
inscriptions and belles lettres, was born at Bugey, Nov. 23,
1709, of an ancient family that had lost its titles and property during the wars of the league. Although the eldest
of twelve children, his father destined him for the church,
and he studied with great approbation and success at the
college of Lyons, and had so much distinguished himself
that when the tim'e came that he should study theology,
two seminaries disputed which should have him. His own.
determination was in favour of that of the Jesuits, in consequence of the superior having promised to remit a part of
his expences in order that he might be able to purchase
books. At the age of twenty-six he went to Paris to the
seminary of Trente-Trois, where he became successively
master of the conferences, librarian, and second superior.
When he had finished his studies, he wanted the necessary
supplies to enable him to travel from one diocese to another; and the archbishop of Lyons having t refused this, from
a wish to keep him in his own diocese, Du Puy resolved to
give up all thoughts of the church, and devote himself to
the sciences and belles-lettres. He now sought the acquaintance of men of polite literature, and particularly obtained a steady friend in the academician Fourmont, whose
house was the rendezvous of men of learning and learned
foreigners. It was Fourmont who procured him the editorship of the “Journal cles Savans,
” which he accordingly
conducted for thirty years, and contributed many valuable
papers and criticisms of his own. His knowledge was very
various; he knew Hebrew, Greek, and mathematics, so as
to have been able to make a figure in either, had he devoted himself wholly to one pursuit; but his reading and
study were desultory, and it was said of him in mathematical
language, that he was the mean proportional between the
academy of sciences and that of inscriptions. In 1768 the
prince de Soubise made him his librarian, a situation of
course much to his liking, and which he filled for twenty
years, until the derangement of the prince’s affairs made
him inform a bookseller that he intended to part with his
library. This came like a clap of thunder to poor Du Puy,
and brought on a strangury, of which, after seven years of
suffering, he died April 10, 1795.