Pierre Desfontaines

The Abbé Pierre François Guyot-Desfontaines (1685 in Rouen – 16 December 1745 in Paris) was a French journalist, translator and popular historian.

Desfontaines entered the order of Jesuits after being raised by them, and taught rhetoric in Bourges before devoting himself exclusively to letters until 1715.

In 1724, he became a contributor to the Journal des sçavans, attempting to introduce an amenity of style into his scientific articles, avoiding dryness and pedantry.

He then published, with various collaborators such as Élie Fréron, Granet, the Abbé Destrées, periodical collections of criticism: Le Nouvelliste du Parnasse [The Short-Story Writer of Parnassus] (1731–1734, 5 vols.

Voltaire retorted with a lampoon entitled Le Préservatif, ou critique des Observations sur les écrits modernes [The Counterpoison, or criticism on Observations on modern writing] (1738), which Desfontaines answered anonymously with a short satirical writing entitled La Voltairomanie (1738), which compiled all the scandalous anecdotes defaming its author at the time.