Life

He was born in Valensole

Valensole

Valensole is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France.-Geography:The river Asse forms most of the commune's northern border, then flows into the Durance, which forms all of its western border.-Population:...

. After studying in the colleges of Marseille

Marseille

Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

 and Avignon

Avignon

Avignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the...

, Chaudon decided to become an ecclesiastic, and was admitted to the order of Saint Benedict

Order of Saint Benedict

The Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...

 at Cluny

Cluny Abbey

Cluny Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was built in the Romanesque style, with three churches built in succession from the 10th to the early 12th centuries....

. Here he had the use of a library. He received honorable briefs from Pope Clement XIII

Pope Clement XIII

Pope Clement XIII , born Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico, was Pope from 16 July 1758 to 2 February 1769....

 and Pope Pius VI

Pope Pius VI

Pope Pius VI , born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, was Pope from 1775 to 1799.-Early years:Braschi was born in Cesena...

 for the works which he composed in defense of Catholicism.

The congregation of Cluny was suppressed in 1787. Chaudon took refuge in the village of Mézin

Mézin

Mézin is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in south-western France.This place is situated in Nerac, Lot-et-Garonne, Aquitaine, France, its geographical coordinates are 44° 3' 0" North, 0° 16' 0" East and its original name is Mézin...

. Old age was drawing on; his sight was failing, his health was feeble, but he secured the esteem of his new neighbors, who begged permission to place his portrait in the hall of the mairie. He lived through all the changes of the Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, for the last ten or twelve years blind and in much suffering, till his death, at age 80. He had collaborated on occasions with his brother Esprit-Joseph Chaudon, who was a bibliographer. He died at Mézin.

Works

His earliest essays were poetical, but after the publication of an Ode sur la Calomnie, (1756), and another addressed to the Échevins de Marseille (1757), he perceived that his forte lay in history and biography.

He published in 1766 the Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique, a biographical dictionary in 4 vols., designed to be equally removed from the prolixity of Moreri

Louis Moréri

Louis Moréri was a French encyclopaedist.His encyclopaedia, Le grand Dictionaire historique, ou le mélange curieux de l'histoire sacrée et profane was first published in Lyon in 1674. The encyclopaedia focused particularly on historical and biographical articles...

 and the dryness of Jean-Baptiste Ladvocat, with the imprint of Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, and professing to be the production of a "société de gens de lettres," but which, in fact, proceeded exclusively from the pen of Chaudon, and was published at Paris. In the form it ultimately assumed, it formed the basis of most of the French biographical dictionaries that followed: the lives are brief, but essential facts and distinctive opinions are noted, for a handy book of reference. The best edition was the 8th, in 13 vols., Lyon, An xii. (1804), in which Chaudon, who had been for some time blind, was assisted by Antoine-François Delandine

Antoine-François Delandine

Antoine-François Delandine , was a French writer.Delandine was born in Lyon. A lawyer at the Parliament of Dijon and the Parliament of Paris, he made ​​a brief political career during the French Revolution when was elected to the Estates-General of 1789 as deputy of the Forez. He was imprisoned...

, who wrote the lives of the revolutionists, the two names being associated on the title page. In this edition, the 13th volume consists of chronological tables of ancient and modern history. The 9th and last edition, by Prudhomme, 20 vols. Paris, 1810-12, was full of errors, and comparatively worthless. It was the basis of the subsequent and distinct work of the François-Xavier de Feller

François-Xavier de Feller

François-Xavier de Feller was a Belgian author.He was born at Brussels. In 1752 he entered a school of the Jesuits at Reims, where he manifested a great aptitude for mathematics and physical science. He commenced his novitiate two years afterwards, and in testimony of his admiration for the...

.

Chaudon was also the author of:

• a pseudonymous Dictionnaire Historique des Auteurs Ecclésiastiques, avec le catalogue de leurs ouvrages, 4 vols. Lyon, 1767 ;
• a work directed against the Encyclopedists ;
• Dictionnaire anti-philosophique, 2 vols. 1767-69, of which a second edition appeared in 1783, under the title of Dictionnaire anti-philosophique;
• Chronologiste Manuel, 1766, etc.;
• Leçons d'Histoire et de Chronologie, 2 vols. Caen, 1785;
• Nouveau Manuel Épistolaire, Caen, 1785, 2 vols. Paris, 1786;
• Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de Voltaire, 2 vols. Amsterdam (Paris), 1785.

Sources

• Charles Knight
  Charles Knight
  Charles Knight is the name of:*Charles Knight , English author and publisher*Charles Knight , British civil servant*Charles Knight , New Zealand filmmaker, actor and stuntman...
  
  , Biography: or, Third division of "The English encyclopedia", London, Bradbury, Evans & Co., 1872, pp.372–73.