Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) is an Italian mystic and preacher, founder of the Order of Friars Minor, commonly known as the Order of Franciscans. Francis of Assisi insists on the need for suffering, humility and simplicity, so many springboards towards a better knowledge - sincere and free -
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was an American scientist and politician, famous for discovering the electrical nature of lightning and inventing the lightning rod. He was also instrumental in the birth of the United States. Inventors of various devices, Benjamin Franklin remains in the collective me
Fernand de Magellan (circa 1480-1521) was a Portuguese explorer of the 16th century. He was the first to have found, south of the New World (America), a passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, still unknown to Europeans. Arrived in the archipelago of the Philippines, he was killed ther
Key figure of the reign of Louis XIV, Sébastien le Prestre (1633-1707), marquis of Vauban , was a specialist in siege and fortification techniques. Coming from the lower nobility, he had a rich but eventful career in the service of the Sun King, for whom he exercised his talents as a military engine
Christopher Columbus , Spanish navigator of Genoese origin, became famous for having discovered the future American continent in 1492 . Convinced that it is possible to reach the Indies from the west and despite the many reservations of his contemporaries, he ended up obtaining the financial support
Considered as one of the masters of French and European Romanticism, Jules Michelet (1798-1874) is above all presented as the father of the history of France but also as the “teacher” of this nation. A man of the people, dedicated to the people, the historian has always thought that his mission was
Greek Historian , Polybius is taken hostage by Rome and exiled from his native land. However, he became close to Paul-Emile and Scipion Emilien, and had a great career. We owe him major texts on the functioning of the Republic and the Punic War, and he is therefore an essential source for Roman hist
Diderot is not the best known of the great French minds of the 18th century, his name being most often only attached to L’Encyclopédie . Indeed, among the great thinkers and philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment, he is not necessarily the first name that comes to mind, at least compared to Voltai
Ammien Marcellin (330-400) was a Roman historian of Greek descent and one of the last great historians of Rome. After a fairly significant eclipse in the 3rd century, the art of writing among the Romans found a new hour of glory when the Empire was reborn, from the reign of Diocletian (284-305). Ind
Although its origins are little known, the work of Livy , born in Padua between 64 and 59 BC. J-C, has become a classic of Roman history. Contemporary of Augustus, he is the hagiographer of Rome, under the influence of Caesars adopted son, but criticizes the latters dictatorship. In his Roman Histor
From the great Roman patrician family of Fabii , Quintus is considered one of the first Roman historians and described by Polybius as scriptorum antiquisimus (the oldest of the authors). An aristocrat in love with his homeland, Quintus Fabius Pictor was a actor in the Punic Wars and a primordial sou
Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) is a historian and senior Arab official of the Middle Ages, author of the first method in historiography as well as the first universal history in the Arabic language. Less known than Avicenna and Averroes, his personality, as well as his eventful life and his monumental work
Philosopher, physician, moralist and biographer of Greek origin, Plutarch was born around AD 46. J-C in Boeotia. A great respected man of his time, he made the link between Greece and Rome - of which he became a citizen - and distinguished himself, among other things, with his Parallel Lives , biogr
Nicholas Machiavelli (1469-1527) was an Italian Renaissance politician and writer, known for his political work titled The Prince . He is associated today with the pejorative adjective taken from his name, “Machiavellian”, and his work reduced to a manual of manipulation and political cynicism stil
The life of chronicler Raoul Glaber (Rodulfus Glaber dit le Chauve), a Burgundian monk born at the end of the 10th century, remains little known. His name and personality are nonetheless a subject of controversy among historians. Associated by romantic historiography and by Michelet with the so-call
Among the Latin historians of antiquity, Tacitus is probably one of the most famous. However, his life is little known, apart from what he gave us of himself in his works and correspondence. Tacitus exercised relatively important functions in the Empire, until becoming a senator. He is thus in line
Petrarch (1304-1374) was an Italian poet and humanist , author of an important scholarly work in Latin and a poetic work in the vernacular. Historian, archaeologist, researcher of manuscripts, he was the first of the great humanists of the Renaissance. But his glory rests above all on his poems in
German-born American physicist,Albert Einstein (1879-1955) is known worldwide for his theory of relativity and his famous equation E =mc2. But beyond these revolutionary works, which are at the origin of contemporary physics, Einsteins marginal personality and his political commitments made him a my
Archimedes (287–212 BC) was a Greek scientist, founder of hydrostatics (study of liquids at rest), and author of works in mechanics and geometry. He is at the origin of the principle that bears his name:“Any body immersed in a fluid undergoes a vertical thrust, directed from bottom to top, equal to
René Descartes (1596-1650) is a French philosopher, physicist and mathematician, theoretician of rationalism. Published in 1637, His Discourse on Method is his most important work. In mathematics, he developed algebraic writing and founded analytical geometry. Descartes will influence opposing philo
Along with studies, Vithalbhai and Vallabhbhai had to help their fathers work on the farm. From there, Vallabhbhai got the practice of doing physical work along with doing mental work. Due to self-study and physical labor, both Vallabhbhais mind and body became strong and beautiful. He also had a l
Born in 1931, Mikhail Gorbachev studied law at the University of Moscow, first joined the Communist Youth and then the Communist Party in 1950. He rose through the ranks as a party official before being elected secretary of the central committee ( 1978) and elected to the Politburo. Gorbachev was el
Rarely in modern historiography has a historian been as identified with one of his works as Edward Gibbon with his History of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire . This magnum opus , whose influence, from its first publication, was spectacular, forever modified the perception that society had o
From the Innu Indian people, An Antane Kapesh (1926 – 2004) writes about the history and culture of his people, and advocates for indigenous rights. She is the first Indigenous woman to publish books in French. A life in the forest An Antane Kapesh was born on March 26, 1926 in the forest near Ku