Louis-Antoine Caraccioli
Marquis Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (6 November 1719 – 29 May 1803) was a prolific French writer, poet, historian, and biographer long considered an "enemy of Philosophy" because of his extensive writings as a religious apologist. Life Caraccioli was born in Paris to a noble family of Neapolitan origin, and held the title of Marquis. He studied in Mans and travelled in Italy, Germany and Poland and returned to Paris around 1768. Caraccioli started his literary career during his travels in Italy. He wrote prolifically on a broad range of subjects. Caraccioli survived the French Revolution, despite his close ties to French aristocracy during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI, but was left financially ruined. In 1795, he was awarded a 2000 franc pension by the National Convention. He died poor in Paris, in 1803, leaving, it is said, only eighty francs behind him. His work was not ranked highly in his time; one of the old French biographical dictionaries, Nouvelle biographie générale, describes him as un littérateur (a maker of literature) rather than un écrivain (a writer). He is especially interesting to eighteenth-century scholars of manners, Pope Clement XIV and ultramontanism, among other subjects. Caraccioli is best known among