Jean Scholastique Pitton (18 December 1621 – 21 February 1689) was a French writer and historian.

Jean Scholastique Pitton
Scholastique Pitton by Joseph Villevieille (1829–1916)
Born(1621-12-18)18 December 1621
Died21 February 1698(1698-02-21) (aged 76)
NationalityFrench
Occupation(s)Writer, historian

Biography

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Jean Scholastique Pitton was born in Aix-en-Provence on 18 December 1621. At a young age he decided to become a doctor, and he pursued this occupation in Saint-Chamas, Bouches-du-Rhône. However his passion for history made him neglect his patients. Pitton wanted to become a historian, following in this the model of the Aix historian Honoré Bouche whose reputation he envied. Although he admired Bouche, he never ceased "to decry him or to bite him."[1]

After the death of his second wife, Pitton requested a dispensation from Rome to take holy orders. He obtained it the day he married his third wife.[2] He was the author of a History of the city of Aix (1666), considered of some usefulness by his successors, although badly ordered and badly written.[2] His later writings received better reviews. He died in Aix-en-Provence on 21 February 1698.

Bibliography

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Works by Pitton include,

  • Histoire de la ville d'Aix, Aix (1666)
  • Annales de l'église d'Aix, Lyon (1668)
  • Traité des eaux chaudes d'Aix, Aix (1678)
  • De conscribenda historia rerum naturalium Provinciæ, Aix (1679)
  • Sentimens sur les historiens de Provence, Aix (1682)

Notes

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  1. ^ Achard 1785.
  2. ^ a b Hoefer 1862, p. 379.

Sources

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  • Achard, Claude-François (1785), Dictionnaire historique de la Provence (in French)
  • Hoefer, Jean Chrétien Ferdinand, ed. (1862), Nouvelle bibliographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours (in French), vol. XXXIX, Ed. Firmin-Didot