Antoine Quartier

Born in Chablis in the 1630s and associated with the Mercedarian order, Antoine Quartier is remembered for a memoir based on his capture in 1660 while traveling in the Mediterranean. He was taken to Tripoli and remained there in captivity until 1668, an experience that later shaped the work for which he is known.

His best-known book, L'esclave religieux, et ses avantures, was published in the late seventeenth century. In it, he recounts the daily realities of enslavement, the people he encountered, and the wider world of the Barbary corsair trade, making the text both a personal testimony and a valuable historical source.

Little else about his life is firmly documented, which gives his surviving work even more weight. For modern readers, Quartier stands out less as a polished literary celebrity than as a witness whose story preserves a striking slice of Mediterranean history.