Definition of Charles de brosses

Charles de Brosses, comte de Tournay, baron de Montfalcon, seigneur de Vezins et de Prevessin, (born Dijon, 1709-d. 1777) was a noteworthy French writer of the 18th century. He was president of the parliament of Dijon (from 1741), member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres of Paris (from 1746), and of the Académie des Sciences, Arts et Belles-Lettres de Dijon (from 1761). He was a close friend of Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1707-1788), the naturalist who wrote the Histoire naturelle, and a personal enemy of Voltaire (1694-1778), the famous philosopher, who barred his entry in the Académie française in 1770. Because he opposed the absolute power of the king, he was exiled twice, in 1744 and 1771. During his life, he wrote numerous academic papers on topics concerning ancient history, philology and linguistics, some of which were used by Diderot and D'Alembert in the Encyclopédie (1751-1765).