Charles-Étienne Pesselier (9 July 1712, in
Paris[1] – 24 April 1763, in Paris) was an 18th-century French playwright and librettist.
After studying at
collège des Quatre-Nations, Pesselier applied for three years to the study of law. He then obtained employment in
Ferme générale and showed such skill that he was given responsibility to open a school of finances in his home.
While fulfilling his duties Pesselier devoted his leisure to literature and gave
Comédie-ItalienneL'École du temps, which was a marked success. The following year, this play was followed by Ésope au Parnasse, also in one act and verse, which was received with applause.
Works
1738: L'École du temps, comedy in one act and in verse, successfully given at Théâtre-Italien, 11 September ;
1739: Ésope au Parnasse, comedy in one act and in verse, presented at Théâtre-Français, 14 October ;
1739: Lettres d'Angélique à Thérèse, in-12 ;
1748: Fables nouvelles, Paris, in-8° ;
1742: Pièces de théâtres et poésies fugitives, Paris, in-8° ;
1761: Doutes proposés à l'auteur de la théorie de l'impôt, in-4° (in which Pesselier refutes the "Theory of tax" by
Mirabeau ;
1762: Lettres sur l'éducation, 2 vol. in-12, etc.
Pesselier collaborated with the Glaneur français (1735–1737) and gave editions of the Œuvres by
Autreau (1749, 4 vol.) and
Pagan (1760, 4 vol.). In addition, he authored the articles Exemption, Ferme (Fermes du Roi (Bail des), Fermes (cinq grosses) of the Encyclopédie by
Diderot and
D'Alembert.
^* « Éloge de M. Pesselier » (anon.), in : Œuvres de Pesselier ; nouvelle édition, considérablement augmentée, Paris, Veuve Duchesne, 1772, pp.iii à vi.
Entry « Pesselier Charles-Étienne », La France littéraire, ou dictionnaire bibliographique des savants, historiens et gens de lettres de la France..., J.-M. Quérard (ed.), Paris, Firmin Didot, 1835, t. VII, p.81
Entry « Pesselier Charles-Étienne », « « Dictionnaire biographique des financiers en France au XVIIIe siècle ; Thierry Claeys & Yves Durand (eds.), third ed., Paris, S.P.M., 2011, t. II, p. 1922.].
Sources
Pierre Larousse, Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe, vol. 12, Paris, Administration du grand Dictionnaire universel, 1866, (p. 695).
Alain Nabarra; Pesselier, Charles-Étienne (1712-1763), In J. Sgard: Dictionnaires des journalistes. Grenoble (1976), (p. 299-300)
Bernard Delmas : « L'anti-physiocratie des financiers : les Doutes de Charles-Étienne Pesselier sur la Théorie de l'impôt du marquis de Mirabeau et l'instruction générale » in : Les Voies De La Richesse ? : La Physiocratie en Question (1760-1850). Gérard Klotz, Philippe Minard & Arnaud Orain (eds.), Presses Universitaires de Rennes, septembre 2017, pp. 79–104.