J.-B. (Jean-Baptiste) Pérès

Born in 1752 in Valence d'Agen, Jean-Baptiste Pérès was a French Oratorian who taught mathematics and physics in Lyon. During the French Revolution he was involved with the Société des amis de la Constitution in his city, and later served as a magistrate in Agen.

He eventually became librarian of the municipal library in Agen, where he spent his later years. Although he had a varied public career, he is chiefly remembered for an anonymous 1827 pamphlet, Comme quoi Napoléon n’a jamais existé, often known as Grand Erratum.

The piece was a sharp satire: by pretending to "prove" that Napoleon was a myth, Pérès mocked extreme forms of biblical and historical skepticism. The pamphlet was translated and circulated widely, giving him an afterlife as a witty and unusual figure in French literary history.