Claude-François-Adrien de Lezay-Marnésia was born in Metz on 24 August 1735 and passed away in Besançon on 9 November 1800. Although he died less than three hundred kilometers from his birthplace and spent most of his existence in Paris and Franche-Comté, the marquis de Lezay-Marnésia also experienced an adventurous life when he traveled to the United States and to the far away shores of the Ohio river, where he hoped to create a colony for French emigrants fleeing the Revolution. Although he is known nowadays by a handful of specialists of Eighteenth-Century France only, his role as a significant figure of the Enlightnement is being reevaluated and new scholarship is produced on his heterogenous …
4265 words
Citation: Hoffmann, Benjamin. "Claude-François-Adrien de Lezay-Marnésia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 December 2015 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13399, accessed 23 November 2024.]