View source for Joseph-François Michaud

{{Short description|French academic (1767–1839)}}
[[Image:Joseph François Michaud.jpg|thumb|Joseph–François Michaud]]

'''Joseph–François Michaud''' ({{IPA|fr|ʒozɛf fʁɑ̃swa miʃo}}; 19 June 1767 – 30 September 1839) was a French [[historian]] and [[publicist]].

==Biography==
Michaud was born at either [[La Biolle]] or [[Albens]] in the [[Duchy of Savoy]] (then a part of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and a possession of the [[Kingdom of Sardinia|King of Sardinia]]). He was educated at [[Bourg-en-Bresse]], and afterwards engaged in literary work at [[Lyon]], where the [[French Revolution]] first aroused the strong dislike of revolutionary principles which manifested itself throughout the rest of his life. In 1791 he went to [[Paris]], where, at great risk to his own safety, he took part in editing several royalist journals.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} One of those was the ''Gazette universelle'' that he founded together with Pascal Boyer and [[Antoine Marie Cerisier]]. It was very successful until it was suppressed in August 1792 and its editors had to flee to escape arrest.<ref>Favre, R., ''Antoine Cerisier (1749-1828)'' in ''Dictionnaire des Journalistes (1600-1789)'', page 157 [http://dictionnaire-journalistes.gazettes18e.fr/journaliste/157-antoine-cerisier]</ref> In 1796 he became editor of ''[[La Quotidienne]]'', for which he was arrested after the [[13 Vendémiaire|13th of Vendémiaire]]; he evaded his captors, but was sentenced to death ''in absentia'' by the military council. Having resumed the editorship of his newspaper on the establishment of the [[French Directory]], he was again proscribed on the 18th of Fructidor, but after two years returned to Paris, when the [[French Consulate|Consulate]] had superseded the Directory.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
[[File:Viaggio in Grecia ed a Smirne 2.jpg|thumb|''Viaggio in Grecia ed a Smirne'', 1834]]

His [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] sympathies led to a brief imprisonment in 1800, and on his release he temporarily abandoned journalism, and began to write and edit books. In 1806, with his brother [[Louis Gabriel Michaud]] and two colleagues, he published ''Biographie moderne ou dictionnaire des hommes qui se sont fait un nom en Europe, depuis 1789'', the earliest work of its kind. In 1811 published the first volume of his ''Histoire des Croisades'' (History of the Crusades) and also the first volume of his ''Biographie Universelle''. In 1813 he was elected [[Académie française|Academician]], taking up the vacancy left by the death of [[Jean-François Cailhava de L'Estandoux]]. In 1814 he resumed the editorship of ''La Quotidienne''. His brochure ''Histoire des quinze semaines ou le dernier règne de Bonaparte'' (1815) met with extraordinary success, passing through twenty-seven editions within a very short time.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

His political services were now rewarded with the cross of an officer in the [[Legion of Honour]] and the modest post of king's reader, of which last he was deprived in 1827 for having opposed [[Peyronnet]]'s "Loi d'Amour" against the freedom of the Press. In 1830-1831 he travelled in [[Syria]] and [[Egypt]] for the purpose of collecting additional materials for the ''Histoire des Croisades''; his correspondence with a fellow explorer, [[Jean Joseph François Poujoulat]], consisting practically of discussions and elucidations of various points in that work, was afterwards published (''{{lang|fr|Correspondance d'Orient}}'', 7 vols., 1833–1835). Like the ''Histoire'', it is more interesting than exact. The ''Bibliothèque des croisades'', in four volumes more, contained the "Pièces justificatives" of the ''Histoire''. Michaud died at [[Passy]], where his home had been since 1832.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Works==
[[File:Gustave dore crusades death of baldwin I.jpg|thumb|"The Death of Baldwin" (1875), one of 100 plates prepared for a posthumous edition of Michaud's ''History of the Crusades'' by [[Gustave Doré]]]]

Michaud's ''Histoire des croisades'' was published in its final form in six volumes in 1840 under the editorship of his friend [[Jean Joseph François Poujoulat]].<ref name=":82">Michaud, Joseph. (1841). [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008232607/Home Histoire des croisades]. 6. éd. Paris.</ref> This was translated  to ''The History of the Crusades'' (1852)<ref name=":311">Michaud, J., Robson, W. (1881). [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006664455/Home The history of the crusades]. New ed. London.</ref> by British author William Robson (1785–1863), with a biographical notice on Michaud by American essayist [[Hamilton Wright Mabie|Hamilton W. Mabie]]. Michaud, along with Poujoulat, also edited ''Nouvelle collection des mémoires pour servir de l'histoire de France'' (32 vols., 1836–1844). See [[Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve|Sainte-Beuve]], ''Causeries du lundi'', vol. vii.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1875, the famous illustrator [[Gustave Doré]] produced 100 pictures for a 2 volume medium folio edition of the ''Histoire'' which was published by [[Hachette (publisher)|Hachette and Company]]. A detailed discussion and critique of the ''Histoire des croisades'' was done by British historian of the Crusades [[Christopher Tyerman]] in his ''The Debate on the Crusades, 1099–2010'' (2011).<ref name=":66">{{Cite book|last=Tyerman, Christopher (2011). Notice bibliographique|title=The Debate of the Crusades|series=Issues in historiography |date=15 August 2011 |publisher=Manchester University press |isbn=978-0-7190-7320-5 |url=https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb424858475}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=M-pDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA462 Joseph Michaud] in ''The New American Encyclopaedia'', 1865.
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Michaud, Joseph François |volume=18|page=361}}
* {{CE1913 |wstitle=Joseph-François Michaud |volume=10|first=Louis René|last=Bréhier|short=1}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{commonscat}}

* {{Gutenberg author|id=45143}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Michaud, Joseph Francois}}
[[Category:1767 births]]
[[Category:1839 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at Passy Cemetery]]
[[Category:19th-century French historians]]
[[Category:People from Savoie]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie Française]]
[[Category:Historians of the Crusades]]
[[Category:Officers of the Legion of Honour]]
[[Category:Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Bourbon Restoration]]