Background
Boyer was born in Aix-en-Provence.
Boyer was born in Aix-en-Provence.
In 1724 he accompanied the French ambassador on a journey to Constantinople, where he lived for a year. After an adventurous youth, he was disinherited by his father. He then settled for a time in Amsterdam, where he wrote his famous Lettres juives (The Hague, 6 vols, 1738-1742), Lettres chinoises (The Hague, 6 vols, 1739-1742), and Lettres cabalistiques (2nd ed, 7 vols, 1769).
Also the Mémoires secrets de la république des lettres (7 vols, 1743-1478), afterwards revised and augmented as Histoire de l'esprit humain (Berlin, 14 vols, 1765-1768). He also wrote six novels, the best known of which is Thérèse Philosophe (1748). He was invited by Frederick the Great to his court where he spent the greater part of his career.
He was appointed a Royal Chamberlain and Director of the Belles-Lettres section of the Academy. D'Argens returned to France in 1769, and died near Toulon on the 11th of January 1771, aged 66.
Prussian Academy of Sciences.