Charles-Étienne Jordan
author, advisor to Frederick the Great
Charles-Étienne Jordan (1700 in Berlin – 1745) was a Prussian-born Huguenot refugee, advisor to Frederick the Great and French-language author on literature and history. He is mainly remembered for his Histoire d'un voyage litteraire (1735) describing his literary visits in France, England and the Netherlands.
In 1736 Jordan became the Crown Prince's literary secretary, in 1740 he was appointed Curator of the Universities, and in 1744 Vice President of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. At the Rheinsberg Castle he was the member of a radical intellectual circle including general Heinrich August de la Motte Fouqué. Jordan was an avid collector of banned radical and "Socinian" books, obtaining copies of the Meditationes of Theodor Ludwig Lau, Jean Bodin's Colloque, and Adrian Beverland's État de l'homme for his personal library.
“Charles-Étienne Jordan” enters the record as author, advisor to Frederick the Great. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Charles-Étienne, Jordan and author can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Charles-Étienne Jordan” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Charles-Étienne, Jordan and author provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1066647. VIAF identifies the subject as 69022215. The Library of Congress control number is nr92041227. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1700, 1745, 1735 and 1736.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Charles-Étienne Jordan”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Charles-Étienne Jordan primary sources, Charles-Étienne Jordan archive and Charles-Étienne research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Charles-Étienne Jordan”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Charles-Étienne Jordan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.