De Gérardo, JOSEPH MARIE, BARON, was born 29th February 1772, at Lyons, of Italian blood. Fleeing from Paris to Germany, he entered (1797) Massena's army as a private, and wrote a treatise, 'crowned' by the Academy, Des Signes et de l'Art de Penser (1800). In 1802 appeared his De la Génération des Connaissances Humaines, a precursor of his Histoire de Philosophie (1803), long reputed the best French work on the subject. It procured him, in the following year, admission into the Academy. He was appointed secretary-general to the Ministry of the Interior by Napoleon. But De Gérardo is even better known by his philanthropic writings. His excellent work, Le Visiteur du Pauvre (1820), obtained the Montyon prize, as did also his Du Perfectionnement Moral (1824).
De Gérardo was elevated to the peerage in 1837, and died 12th November 1842, vice-president of the Council of State.