author
Antoine Quartier
A French memoirist from the 17th century, he is remembered for a gripping firsthand account of captivity after being seized by Barbary corsairs. His surviving work offers a rare, personal window into travel, danger, and enslavement in the Mediterranean world.
1 Audiobook
L'esclave religieux, et ses avantures
by Antoine Quartier
About the author
Born in Chablis around 1632, Antoine Quartier was a French writer associated with the Mercedarian order. He is best known for a memoir describing what happened after he was captured in 1660 while traveling in the Mediterranean and taken to Tripoli, where he spent years in captivity.
His book, usually cited under the title L'Esclave religieux et ses avantures, stands out as a firsthand narrative of enslavement and survival. Written decades after the events it recounts, it has drawn interest for the way it blends personal testimony, religious life, and the realities of the 17th-century Barbary slave trade.
Little else about his life is widely documented, but his memoir has kept his name alive as an unusual witness to a turbulent period of Mediterranean history.