Louis-Pierre Anquetil
French historian

Louis-Pierre Anquetil (21 February 1723 – 6 September 1808) was a French historian.
Biography
He was born in Paris on 21 February 1723. In 1741, he joined the religious community of the Génofévains, where he took holy orders and became professor of theology and literature. Later, he became rector of the seminary at Reims, where he published the 3-volume "Civil and Political History of Reims" (French: Histoire civile et politique de Reims), in 1756 and 1757. In 1759, he was appointed prior of the abbey de la Roe in Anjou; shortly thereafter he became director of the college of Senlis. While there, he composed a history of France in the 16th and 17th centuries (Esprit de la Ligue, ou histoire politique des troubles de France pendant les XVIe et XVIIe siècles) published in 1767. The year before, he had obtained the curacy or priory of Chateau-Renard near Montargis. He also became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
At the beginning of the French Revolution, he moved to the curacy of La Villette near Paris but, during the Reign of Terror, he was imprisoned at St-Lazare. While there, he began his summary of world history (Précis de l'histoire universelle), afterwards published in nine volumes.
The public source identifies “Louis-Pierre Anquetil” as french historian. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Louis-Pierre, Anquetil and French.
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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 Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1871457. VIAF identifies the subject as 12345963. The Library of Congress control number is nr90019546. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1723, 1808, 1741 and 1756.
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This entry incorporates text from “Louis-Pierre Anquetil” 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.