Nicolas Luton Durival

Nicolas-Luton Durival (13 November 1713, Commercy – 21 December 1795, Heillecourt) was an 18th-century Lorrain civil servant, historian and geographer who became French after 1766.

The elder son of Jean-Baptiste Luton Durival, Nicolas Durival spent his entire career in the Lorraine administration. Having a good education, he was placed in the offices of the Intendance of the Duchy of Lorraine, and applied himself fully to acquire the knowledge necessary to an administrator. Struck with the imperfection of the works that existed on the topography of Lorraine, he formed the project to write one that would depart from the drought classifications and the prolixity of particular stories, contain accurate records on cities, towns and villages of this country. He published various essays to better understand if the project would be enjoyed and to request help from enlightened people ; he finally brought out, after twenty years of work and research, a Description de la Lorraine et du Barrois which was regarded, rightly, as a model of this kind of works. He was then clerk of Stanislas Leszczynski's State Council, and finally lieutenant de police in Nancy.

Durival was a member of the Académie de Nancy since 1760 and communicated to the company a lot of memories on objects of public utility. His police lieutenant position having been abolished in 1790, he was appointed city manager. Though he had occupied gainful employment for most of his life, he remained poor and was included in the number of scholars to which the Convention granted relief in 1795.

Durival collaborated with the Encyclopédie by Diderot. He is the author of several books on the history, customs, agriculture, geography and customs of Lorraine.

In his Bibliothèque physico-économique, Sonnini inserted three memoirs by Durival :

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