Louis-Antoine Caraccioli

Marquis Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (6 November 1719 – 29 May 1803) was a prolific French writer, poet, historian, and biographer long considered an "enemy of Philosophy" because of his extensive writings as a religious apologist.

[1] His work was not ranked highly in his time; one of the old French biographical dictionaries, Nouvelle biographie générale, describes him as un littérateur (a maker of literature) rather than un écrivain (a writer).

Lettres intéressantes du pape Clément XIV, which are considered by many to be forgeries, initially misled many Europeans about the life of the then recently deceased Pope.

Unlike most courtesy books, Caraccioli's has the semblance of a plot and reads somewhat like a novel, which ends with the death of the main character.

Caraccioli's work evolved a great deal over the half-century in which it was produced, and gradually reflected many modern values.