author
comte de A. (Alphonse) Fortia de Piles
1758–1826
An 18th- and early 19th-century French nobleman, traveler, and man of letters, he is remembered for witty collaborative works and for travel writing shaped by journeys across northern and eastern Europe. His life moved between military service, scholarship, and the lively literary culture of his time.
1 Audiobook
Les mystifications de Caillot-Duval Choix de ses lettres les plus amusantes avec les réponses de ses victimes
by comte de A. (Alphonse) Fortia de Piles, Pierre Marie Louis de Boisgelin de Kerdu
About the author
Born in Marseille on August 18, 1758, and died in Sisteron on February 18, 1826, Fortia de Piles was a French aristocrat whose full name was Alphonse-Toussaint-Joseph-André-Marie-Marseille de Fortia de Piles. Records from the Bibliothèque nationale de France identify him as an author, and contemporary library catalogs connect his name with works ranging from reflections on society and entertainment to historical and literary compilations.
He is especially associated with the playful pseudonym Caillot-Duval, created with Pierre-Marie-Louis de Boisgelin de Kerdu while the two were young officers stationed at Nancy. That partnership produced satirical and philosophical writings that gave Fortia de Piles a place in the lighter, more mischievous side of French literary history.
He also wrote or was credited with travel literature, including an account of a journey through Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and Poland in the years 1790 to 1792. Alongside these literary pursuits, biographical sources describe him as a figure of rank connected to public office in Marseille, making him an author whose books reflect both curiosity about the wider world and the social world of ancien-régime and post-Revolutionary France.