Publication Michaël Green: The Huguenot Jean Rou (1638-1711) Scholar, educator, civil servant

Jean Rou (1638-1711), was a Huguenot scholar, educator and civil servant. Despite having an established career as a lawyer at the Parlement de Paris, he chose instead to dedicate himself to scholarly publications. After being accused of offending the Catholic Church in his Tables de l’histoire universelle moderne (1675) and consequently imprisoned in the Bastille, Rou had to leave France. Initially, he went to England, where he was employed as a tutor. After a short return to his motherland, where he taught local nobles, he was invited to The Hague, in the United Provinces, to teach the sons of Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijk, the future governor of Suriname. Finally, in 1689, Jean Rou was appointed as translator of the States-General of the United Provinces.

Based on his memoirs and extensive archival sources, this book offers a biographical study on Jean Rou. It focuses on the means by which he established and managed his career in France and abroad. It also presents a comparative examination of the educational ideas and practices of Jean Rou and his position as a man of letters. Although Jean Rou is in the centre of this book, it offers a fascinating insight into intellectual and social practices of Huguenots at his time from two angles that have been rarely discussed before.

About Michaël Green

Michaël Green is a postdoctoral fellow at Leibniz Institute for European History in Mainz. Since September 2008, Michaël Green has been conducting his doctoral research at the Graduate School of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen, under the supervision of Prof. Mirjam de Baar. In his research, Michaël Green focused on the role of Huguenot educators in Early Modern Europe, based on the example of Jean Rou (1638-1711), a lawyer at the Parlement de Paris, an intellectual and an educator. In 2013, he defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Groningen.