Louis Dutens

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Louis Dutens (15 January 1730 - 23 May 1812) was a French writer born in Tours, of Protestant parents. He went to London, where his uncle was a jeweller, and there obtained a situation as tutor in a private family. In this position he learnt Greek and mathematics, Italian, Spanish, and other oriental languages. He took orders, and was appointed chaplain and secretary to the English minister at the court of Turin in October 1758. From 1760 to 1762, he was chargé d'affaires at Turin. Lord Bute, before retiring from office in 1763, procured him a pension. He again went to Turin as chargé d'affaires; and during this second mission he collected and published a complete edition of the works of Leibnitz (Geneva, 6 vols., 1768) and wrote his Recherches sur l'origine des découvertes attribuées aux modernes (1766). On his return to England the Duke of Northumberland procured him the living of Elsdon, in Northumberland, and made him tutor to his son. In 1775, he became a member of the French Academy of Inscriptions and a fellow of the Royal Society. Dutens was for a third time chargé d'affaires at Turin. He was in Paris in 1783, and returned to London the following year. He died in London in 1812.