Oscar de (Philippe François Joseph) Poli

Born in 1838 and dying in 1908, Oscar de Poli — Philippe François Joseph de Poli — was a French writer best known for works on genealogy and heraldry. His published books include Essai d'introduction à l'histoire généalogique and Histoire généalogique des Courtin, which show his deep interest in lineage, noble families, and historical tradition.

He was active in French learned and public life, and one of his books identifies him as president of the Conseil héraldique de France. The same work also makes his royalist and Catholic outlook very clear, presenting genealogy not simply as a technical subject but as part of a wider defense of inherited institutions and old France.

Today, he is mainly remembered through his historical and genealogical writings, which survive in major digital collections. For listeners drawn to aristocratic history, family records, or the intellectual world of conservative France in the late 1800s, his work still has a distinct voice.