Henri Louis Habert de Montmor
Pastel and crayon by Claude Mellan.

Henri Louis Habert de Montmor (c. 1600, Paris - 21 January 1679, Paris) was a French scholar and man of letters.

[edit] Life

Cousin to Philippe Habert and Germain Habert, he became conseiller du roi aged 25, then in 1632 rose to become maître des requêtes, a post he gained thanks to the fortune of his father, treasurer extraordinary for war and treasurer of savings.

He married Henriette-Marie de Buade, sister of Louis de Buade de Frontenac, future governor of New France. He attended on Marie de Gournay and wrote Latin epigrams. In 1634, he was elected an inaugural member of the Académie française, pronouncing its fifth discourse but soon becoming a dissenting member as well as its last inaugural member to die.

An avid supporter of Descartes, he wrote a poem on Cartesian physics entitled De rerum naturae and collected scientific instruments. He was a friend of Mersenne, who dedicated his Harmonie Universelle to Montmor, and a great friend of Pierre Gassendi, who dedicated his Life of Tycho Brahe to Montmor. Gassendi also left him an astronomical telescope he had been left himself by Galileo. Three years after Gassendi's death, Habert edited his complete works in 6 volumes, writing its Latin preface.

Besides Gassendi, he gathered a salon of savants and philosophers, known as the Montmor Academy. It included, among others: Pierre Daniel Huet, Jean Chapelain, Adrien Auzout, Girard Desargues, Samuel Sorbière, Claude Clerselier, Jacques Rohault, Guy Patin, Frénicle de Bessy, Melchisédech Thévenot, Roberval and Huygens. They were all passionate about scientific experiments and formed what was later called the "Académie Monmor", one of the scholarly societies which in 166 gave rise to the Académie des sciences.

[edit] External links

• Biography on the Galileo Project
• (French) Habert de Montmor family
• (French) Biography on the Académie française site