Matthew Maty
Matthew Maty (17 May 1718 – 2 July 1776), originally Matthieu Maty, was a Dutch physician and writer of
Early life
The son of Paul Maty, he was born at
Matthew was entered at
In England
In 1741, he came over to London, England, and set up in practice as a physician. He frequented a club which numbered Drs James Parsons, Peter Templeman, William Watson, and John Fothergill among its members, and met every fortnight in St Paul's Churchyard, but soon began to devote his energies to literature. He began in 1750 the publication of the bi-monthly Journal Britannique, which was printed at the Hague, and gave an account in French of the chief productions of the English press. The ‘Journal,’ which had a considerable circulation in the Low Countries, on the Rhine, and at Paris, Geneva, Venice, and Rome, as well as in England, became in Maty's hands an instrument of eulogy; and it continued to illustrate, in Edward Gibbon's words, ‘the taste, the knowledge, and the judgment of Maty’ until December 1755, by which time it had introduced him to a wide circle of literary friends.
He had been elected
On 1 March 1760, he unsuccessfully applied to the
In 1772, on the death of Gowin Knight, Maty was nominated his successor as principal librarian of the British Museum. In his capacity as chief librarian he placed, like his predecessor, difficulties in the way of visitors. He bought a number of valuable books for the Museum at Anthony Askew's sale in 1775. Maty died on 2 July 1776. His books were sold in 1777 by Benjamin White.
Works
Maty's chief works are:
- Ode sur la Rebellion en Écosse, Amsterdam, 1746.
- Essai sur le Caractère du Grand Medecin, ou Eloge Critique de Mr. Herman Boerhaave, Cologne, 1747.
- Authentic Memoirs of the Life of Richard Mead, M.D., London, 1755, expanded from a memoir in the ‘Journal Britannique.’
His contributions to the
At the time of his death Maty had nearly finished the Memoirs of the Earl of Chesterfield, work assisted by Solomon Dayrolles,[2] which were completed by his son-in-law Justamond, and prefixed to the Miscellaneous Works, 2 vols., 1777 of Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield. Maty had been one of Chesterfield's executors.
Family
He was twice married: first to Elizabeth Boisragon, by whom he had a son
References
- ^ J. G. A. Pocock, Barbarism and Religion, vol. 1: The Enlightenments of Edward Gibbon, 1737–1764 (1999), p. 242.
- ^ Dictionary of National Biography, article on Dayrolles.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Maty, Matthew". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
Further reading
- Uta Janssens (1975), Matthieu Maty and the Journal Britannique 1750–1755: A French view of English literature in the middle of the 18th century.
- Uta Janssens, Matthieu Maty and the adoption of inoculation for smallpox in Holland, Bull. Hist. Med. 1981 Summer; 55(2):246–56.
External links
- Media related to Matthew Maty at Wikimedia Commons
- Works by or about Matthew Maty at Wikisource