Charles Guillaume Loys de Bochat (11 December 1695 – 4 April 1754) was a Swiss jurist and antiquarian (Lausanne at the time was a subject territory controlled by Bern).
Biography
editLoys de Bochat was born on 11 December 1695 in Lausanne. He studied theology in Basel, which he interrupted for health reasons, and later changed his subject to law, in which he graduated in 1717. He became professor of law in Lausanne in 1718, but he was granted leave to travel for three years, which he spent in Halle, in Leyden and in France.
From 1721, he taught law at the Lausanne Academy, where he acted as rector from 1727 to 1730. In 1738, he proposed to transform the academy into a full university, without success.
Loys de Bochat is best known for his major work, Mémoires critiques pour servir d'Eclaircissemens sur divers points de l'Histoire ancienne de la Suisse, which appeared in three volumes in 1747–1749. This work is dedicated to examining the early history of Switzerland, especially the Gaulish Helvetii, and their legacy in Swiss toponymy. He died on 4 April 1754 in Lausanne.
Tomb
editHis tomb is in the ambulatory of the Lausanne Cathedral.
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hic iacet |
Here rests
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References
edit- Loys, Charles Guillaume (de Bochat) in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- Ph. Meylan, Jean Barbeyrac (1674-1744) et les débuts de l'enseignement du droit dans l'ancienne Académie de Lausanne, 1937, 159–171.
- F. Elsener, Die Schweizer Rechtsschulen vom 16. bis 19. Jahrhundert, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Privatrechts, 1975, 226–229.
- J.-F. Poudret et al., L'enseignement du droit à l'Académie de Lausanne aux XVIIIe-XIXe s., 1987, 29–38.