Abauzit Firmin

ABAUZIT, ɑ̄´´bō´´zî´, FIRMIN: French Reformed scholar; b. of Huguenot parentage at Uzès (20 m. w.n.w. of Avignon), Languedoc, Nov. 11, 1679; d. at Geneva, Mar. 20,1767. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) an attempt was made to bring him up as a Roman Catholic, but it was frustrated by his mother. After some hardships and sufferings, mother and son settled in Geneva, where Abauzit was educated and where, with the exception of visits to Holland and England in 1698, he spent his long life devoted to study and the service of the city library. He was one of the most learned men of his time, possessed much versatility, and enjoyed the friendship of scholars like Bayle, Jurieu, Basnage, and Newton. Nevertheless, he published practically nothing; and after his death many of his manuscripts were destroyed by his heirs. A volume of Œuvres diverses appeared at Geneva in 1770; and a different edition in two volumes at London and Amsterdam in 1770-73. They include essays against the doctrine of the Trinity as commonly received, upon the Book of Daniel, and the Apocalypse. He rendered much service to a society for the translation of the New Testament into French (published 1726). Many of his theological writings are translated in E. Harwood’s Miscellanies (London, 1774), with memoir; and seven essays are reprinted thence in Sparks’s Collection of Essays and Tracts in Theology, vol. i. (Boston, 1823).

Bibliography: J. Senebier, Histoire littéraire de Genève, Geneva, 1786; E. and É. Haag, La France protestante, ed. H. L. Bordier, i. 2, Paris, 1877; A. Gibert, Abauzit et sa Théologie, Strasburg, 1865.