Joseph Vaissète

Dom Joseph Vaissète (or Vaissette) (1685 – 1756) was a scholarly French Benedictine monk who wrote a history of Languedoc and a geography of the world as it was known in his day.

Vaissette's Histoire générale de Languedoc is still considered a work of great erudition and value by modern historians.

[2] [The two authors were able to use the prior work of Dom Gabriel Marcland and Dom Pierre Auzieres, two learned and capable scholars who had separately worked in the province for several years, combing the libraries for material and making considerable progress in organizing the material had not been able to continue due to their advanced age or other jobs.

The volume covers the various expeditions of the Tectosages, French revolutions of the province still submitted to the Romans and the arrival of the Visigoths, Charlemagne's creation of the Kingdom of Aquitaine with its capital in Toulouse.

[6] In this and subsequent volumes, Dom Vaissette added learned notes on aspects of the history of Languedoc at the end of the book, taking the form of scholarly dissertations on specific subjects.

[9] The second volume, published in 1733, continues the history for the next three centuries from the start of Louis the Stammerer's reign in 877 up to the beginning of the troubles caused by the Albigensian heresy in 1165.

This volume records the participation of Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse in the First Crusade, of which he was one of the leaders, along with other noble families of the country.

[9] The third volume appeared in 1736 and the fourth in 1742, ending with the Parliament of Languedoc's last opening in 1443, which had functioned continuously since that time.

[11] The abbot of Fontaines said that few general histories had been better written in the French language, and the erudition was profound and agreeable.

[2] Parts of this article are based on a rough translation of the short biography in Louis-Mayeul Chaudon's Dictionnaire universel, historique, critique, et bibliographique of 1812.