260:. Through the publication of his enormous ten-volume catalogue of ancient Greek coins (Paris: Chez H. L. Guerin & L. F. Delatour, 1762–1778, 10 vol. in-4º. pl), which were in fact a catalogue raisonné of his own immense collection, he brought clarity to this muddied field by being the first to arrange the many thousands of issues geographically as well as chronologically. His identification of many puzzling pieces were a testimony to his rare powers of observation and perspicacity. He could be said to have cleared a path for the famous
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night, writing his text on a thin ribbon of paper that he pulled off one spool only to be wound back up onto another to be later transcribed by his secretary. His sense of touch became phenomenally acute and he was able to identify minor variants of certain coins by subtle tactile differences alone. The portrait displayed on the upper right side of this page, from the frontispiece to one of the volumes of his work shows him surrounded by some of his favourite coins and antiquities in 1780, when he was already over 98 years of age.
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177:, which included French, English, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Syriac as well as others, and it was to his precocious expertise in these that he owed his admission to the offices of the Ministry of the Marine (as the Navy was called in France) in 1706, where he became employed in correspondence. Having in 1709 succeeded (despite the previous failure of trained cryptographers) to decipher some coded letters seized from a Spanish frigate concerning the
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He grew progressively more blind from the time of his retirement from public service and was almost completely blind at the time of his death, a near-centenarian in 1782. He found, however, a way to turn this handicap to profit, working on the succeeding volumes of his opus by day as easily as by
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Pellerin Sr. thus eventually became free to follow his true passion, which was the study of ancient (principally Greek) coins. Tradition has it that he encouraged the sailors of the French
Mediterranean Fleet to buy up such ancient coins as they found on offer throughout their range, which he
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After a very successful career he sought an early retirement in 1745 citing health problems due to overwork. In fact he remained on as a greatly valued expert consultant for several years afterwards, his positions having gradually been formally assumed by his son Joseph Jr., who received
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guaranteed to buy back from them at double the purchase price. In this way he gradually accumulated what became the largest and most valuable collection of ancient Greek coins ever to be held in private hands to that date, amounting to 33,500 coins which he ultimately sold to
340:. In a macabre gesture, his severed head was then presented to the King, imprisoned in the Temple, as a grisly birthday gift. His services and ultimate sacrifice were recalled during the restoration by the King's younger brother who had been crowned as
312:), Arnaud's younger brother Jean-Baptiste de La Porte-Lalanne being named special envoy to Quebec to look into the civil administration and to check into some alleged financial irregularities there. He later went on to become Commissioner of the French
308:(or De Laporte) in 1737 who later inherited the Pellerin offices after the premature death of Joseph Jr. The La Porte brothers were to prove very influential in the development of French colonial policy, particularly towards New France (
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in 1790. A close confidant of the beleaguered king, Louis XVI entrusted him with great sums of private money to be distributed toward the moderation of the rapidly radicalising revolutionary fervour. Despite a close collaboration with
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216:(whether out of disregard, pique against Maurepas, personally, or for another reason remains in debate). They may be consulted in the Maurepas Papers at
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to the throne (and thus occupy
British forces which were greatly hampering French colonial affairs), though supported by Maurepas went unexecuted by
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elevated him to
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in 1776 for ÂŁ300,000 . This notable collection, housed in massive original marquetry and ormolu cases in the
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He enjoyed similar favour in the succeeding ministries: under Louis XIV's legitimated son the
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Pellerin married into another
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in recognition of two generations' of his family's service to the crown in 1740.
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and may be viewed in the old buildings on the Rue de
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Pellerin's study brought great advances to the science of
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In his youth his principal studies were in the modern and
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27 April 1684 and died 2 August 1783 at his château of
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style, still forms a nucleus of the collection of the
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and one of the great exponents of the French baroque
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355:Dictionnaire Biographique Universel
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