author
J.-A. (Joseph-Adrien) Le Roi
1797–1873
A 19th-century French doctor, librarian, and historian, he wrote with a local scholar’s eye for detail and a storyteller’s taste for historical curiosities. His work is especially tied to Versailles, the city where he was born, worked, and died.
1 Audiobook
Curiosités historiques sur Louis XIII, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Mme de Maintenon, Mme de Pompadour, Mme du Barry, etc.
by J.-A. (Joseph-Adrien) Le Roi
About the author
Born in Versailles on March 19, 1797, Joseph-Adrien Le Roi became known not only as a physician but also as a librarian and historian. That mix of professions helps explain the character of his writing: careful with facts, rooted in archives, and deeply interested in the life of his city and in French history.
Le Roi is particularly associated with historical writing about Versailles and with books that gather lively episodes from France’s royal past. His surviving bibliographic records show a broad range of scholarly interests, from local history to medical and learned society work, reflecting the active intellectual culture of 19th-century France.
He died in Versailles on February 25, 1873. Today, he is remembered less as a literary celebrity than as a diligent man of letters whose books preserve anecdotes, places, and historical details that might otherwise have faded from view.