Occupation Encyclopédiste | ||
 | ||
Born 21 November 1723 Bordeaux Died 13 December 1768, Paris, France | ||
Étienne Noël Damilaville 21 November 1723 – 13 December 1768) was an 18th-century French man of letters, friend of Voltaire, Diderot and d'Alembert. He served in various military and administrative functions of the Ancien Régime. 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, most particularly during the Sirven affair.
Contents
The Encyclopédie
Damilaville authored three articles in the Encyclopédie - Population, Peace and The Vingtième.
Friendship with Voltaire
Voltaire regarded him as a very close friend, and wrote him at least 539 letters over eight years. They only actually met, for the first time, after they had been corresponding for five years, on 20 August 1765, when Damilaville visited Ferney.
Opinion of Damilaville was not universally positive: Melchior Grimm said of him
' He had neither grace, nor mental wit, and he lacked the worldly savoir-faire which makes up for it. He was sad and heavy, and his lack of basic education always showed through. '