Comte de Choiseul-Gouffier

Marie-Gabriel-Florent-Auguste de Choiseul-Gouffier (27 September 1752, Paris – 20 June 1817, Aix-la-Chapelle), called Auguste de Choiseul-Gouffier (/ˌʃwɑːzʊlˈɡuːfieɪ/), was a member of the Académie française and the Choiseul-Gouffier family, French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1784 until the fall of the French monarchy and a scholar of ancient Greece.

Right from his studies at the collège d'Harcourt, he had a passion for antiquities. He was particularly marked by frequent meetings with Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, author of Voyage d'Anarcharsis, whom he met at the home of his cousin the duc de Choiseul. Another friend was Talleyrand, with whom he participated in court intrigues and by whom he was dissuaded from taking up the religious life.

In 1776, he left for Greece on board the frigate Atalante, commanded by Joseph Bernard de Chabert, marquis of Chabert, who was interested in astronomy. With painters and architects in tow, Choiseul-Gouffier thus visited the south Peloponnese, the Cyclades and other Aegean islands, then moved on to Asia Minor. The journey had also had a political goal - explaining the situation in the Aegean between the Ottoman Empire and Imperial Russia. On his return he published the first volume of his Voyage pittoresque de la Grèce, which was a great success and facilitated his intellectual and political career. He became a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres in 1782, then a member of the Académie française in 1783. He was ambassador to Constantinople from 1784 to 1791, taking advantage of this chance to discover Greece. In Constantinople he gathered about him a semi-formal academy where gentlemen engaged in recording the beauties and treasures of the city gathered.

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