Damilaville biography

Étienne Noël Damilaville (21 November 1723 – 13 December 1768) was an.
Étienne Noël Damilaville was an 18th-century French man of letters, friend of Voltaire, Diderot and d'Alembert.
Damilaville distributed some of Voltaire's illegal works, supplied him with news, gossip, and clandestine literature, sent his correspondence and parcels free.

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Career, biography and origin of Etienne Noel Damilaville

Étienne-Noël Damilaville was born on June 2, 1723 in Paris, France, and died on November 13, 1768. He came from a Parisian bourgeoisie family, whose origins dated back to the 16th century. His father, Jean Damilaville, was a successful merchant specializing in textile trading, while his mother, Marie Le Blanc, was the daughter of a respected notary. Étienne-Noël was the second of their three children, and from a young age he showed great intelligence and a passion for learning. He studied at the Collège de Juilly, where he excelled in literary and philosophical disciplines. After his studies, Damilaville pursued a career in public administration by joining the Ministry of Finance.

His extensive knowledge of economics and analytical skills quickly caught the attention of his superiors, and he rose through the ranks to become an influential advisor. Alongside his career, Damilaville was also a committed thinker and writer. He was interested in the ideas of Enlightenment philosophers, particularly those of Voltaire, and cont

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Voltaire To Damilaville On Sirven and Calas Cases

Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] to Étienne Noël Damilaville1

Friday, 1 March 1765 — [translated from French into English]

[page 189]

LXII
THE CASE OF CALAS AND OF THE SIRVENS
To M. Etienne Damilaville

Ferney, March 1, 1765

My dear friend, I have devoured the new Memoir of M. de Beaumont2 on the innocence of the
Calas; I have admired and wept over it, but it told me nothing I did not know; I have long been
convinced, and it was I who was lucky enough to furnish the first proofs.

You would like to know how this European protest against the judicial murder of the unhappy
Calas, broken on the wheel at Toulouse, managed to reach a little unknown corner of the world,
between the Alps and the Jura, a hundred miles from the scene of the fearful event.

Nothing more clearly reveals the existence of that imperceptible chain which links all the events
of this miserable world.

At the end of March, 1762, a traveller, who had come through Languedoc and arrived in my little
retreat two miles from Geneva, told me of the sacrifice of Ca

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Étienne Noël Damilaville

French man of letters and friend of Voltaire, Diderot and d'Alembert

Étienne Noël Damilaville (21 November 1723 – 13 December 1768) was an 18th-century French man of letters, friend of Voltaire, Diderot and d'Alembert.^[1] He served in various military and administrative functions of the Ancien Régime.^[2] He was a member of the bodyguard of King Louis XV, and then a senior civil servant in the tax office responsible for supervising the Vingtième. His official roles meant that his correspondence was unexamined by censors, enabling him to circulate letters between leading thinkers of the day,^[3] most particularly during the Sirven affair.

The Encyclopédie

Damilaville authored three articles in the Encyclopédie - Population, Peace and The Vingtième.

Vingtieme

Damilaville is believed to have coauthored an article in the Encyclopédie on the Vingtieme^[4] tax regime with Diderot, his trusted associate.^[5] His treatise is largely a discussion on the nature of government, of civi