Firmin Abauzit facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Firmin Abauzit
Born	(1679-11-11)11 November 1679 Uzès, Kingdom of France
Died	20 March 1767(1767-03-20) (aged 87) Geneva, Republic of Geneva
Nationality	French
Citizenship	Republic of Geneva
Known for	Proofreading or correcting the writings of Isaac Newton
Scientific career
Fields	Physics Theology Philosophy

Firmin Abauzit (born November 11, 1679 – died March 20, 1767) was a very smart French scholar. He studied many different subjects, including physics (how things work), theology (the study of religion), and philosophy (the study of knowledge and existence). For the last 40 years of his life, he worked as a librarian in Geneva, which was then called the Republic of Geneva. Abauzit was also well-known for checking and correcting the writings of famous scientists like Isaac Newton.

Biography

Firmin Abauzit was born on November 11, 1679, in a town called Uzès in France. His parents were Huguenots, who were French Protestants. His family's history goes back to an Arab doctor who lived in Toulouse in the 800s. This is why his last name, "Abauzit," likely comes from the Arabic name "Abu Zaid."

When Firmin was only two years old, his father passed away. In 1685, the government tried to make him convert to the Catholic Church. To protect him, his mother helped him escape.

For two years, Firmin and his brother lived hidden in the mountains. Eventually, they made it to Geneva. Later, their mother joined them there after she escaped from prison. Firmin quickly became very good at learning languages, physics, and theology.

In 1698, he traveled to Germany and then to Holland. There, he met other important thinkers like Pierre Bayle. After that, he went to England and was introduced to Sir Isaac Newton. Abauzit became one of the first people to defend Newton's new ideas. Newton even corrected a mistake in his famous book, Principia, after Abauzit pointed it out. Newton once told Abauzit that he was "well worthy to judge" between him and another famous scientist, Gottfried Leibniz.

King William III of England was so impressed by Abauzit that he asked him to live in England. However, Abauzit chose to go back to Geneva.

From 1715, he helped a group that was translating the New Testament (part of the Christian Bible) into French. In 1723, he was offered a job as a professor of philosophy at the University of Geneva, but he turned it down. He continued to help with the French New Testament translation in 1726. In 1727, he became a citizen of Geneva. He then accepted a special job as an honorary librarian for the city. He wrote many of his works while living in Geneva in his later years. Firmin Abauzit passed away in Geneva on March 20, 1767, when he was 87 years old.

Legacy

Abauzit was known for being incredibly smart and knowledgeable about many different things. People used to say that no matter what topic came up, Abauzit seemed to have studied it in detail. Even Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a famous writer who rarely praised others, wrote a wonderful tribute to Abauzit in his book Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse. When someone told Voltaire, another famous philosopher, that they had come to see a great man, Voltaire asked if they had already seen Abauzit. Among his friends, Abauzit counted Rousseau, Voltaire, Newton, and Bayle.

Sadly, not many of Abauzit's writings still exist. It is believed that his family destroyed some of his papers because their own religious beliefs were different from his. A few of his articles about religion, history, and astronomy appeared in a magazine called Journal helvétique. He also wrote several articles for Rousseau's Dictionnaire de musique (1767). He wrote a work that questioned if the Apocalypse (a book in the Bible) was truly part of the official Biblical canon. This led to a response from Dr. Leonard Twells. Abauzit's work on the Apocalypse was also published in Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie. He also helped edit and add important information to Jacob Spon's Histoire de la république de Genève, which was a history of Geneva. A collection of his writings was published in Geneva in 1770, and another in London in 1773.

Works

See also

In Spanish: Firmin Abauzit para niños