Geoffrin, MARIE THÉRÈSE

Geoffrin, MARIE THÉRÈSE, born at Paris, 2d June 1699, was the daughter of a valet de chambre named Rodet, a native of Dauphiné; and in her fifteenth year was married to a very rich citizen in the Faubourg St Antoine, who died not long after, leaving her an immense fortune. Madame Geoffrin, though herself but imperfectly educated, had a genuine love of learning and art, and her house soon became a rendezvous of the men of letters and artists of Paris. Every illustrious foreigner was welcomed to her circle, but her dearest friends were the philosophes, and upon them in their necessities she showered her money with equal delicacy and liberality. Among her friends she numbered Montesquieu, Marmontel, Morellet, Thomas, and Stanislaus Poniatowski, afterwards king of Poland. The last is said to have announced to her his elevation to the throne in the words: 'Maman, votre fils est roi.' In 1766 he prevailed on her to visit Warsaw, where she was received with the greatest distinction, and subsequently in Vienna she met the same reception from the Empress Maria Theresa and her son, Joseph II. Madame Geoffrin died in October 1777, leaving legacies to most of her friends. Towards the publication of the Encyclopédie she contributed, according to the calculations of her daughter, who was no friend to her mother's pet philosophers, more than 100,000 francs. The panegyrics of D'Alembert, Thomas, and Morellet are to be found in the Éloges de Madame Geoffrin (1812). Morellet likewise published her treatise Sur la Conversation, and her Lettres.