L'abbé de Choisy, historien du Siam et de l'Asie du Sud-Est

François-Timoléon de Choisy (1644-1724), known as the abbé de Choisy, was one of the envoys of Louis XIV to the court of Somdet Phra Narai in 1685. This first French embassy ever sent to Siam has been recorded in several travel reports, among which Choisy's Journal du voyage de Siam, translated in the early 1990s into Japanese and English, distinguishes itself by its freshness, its intellectual curiosity and its open-mindedness. Before setting sail, Choisy had promised to his best friend, the abbé Louis de Dangeau who happened to be a very curious man, to write down for him everything he could find about the history of the kingdom of Siam and its neighbours, and he was as good as his word. Besides his Journal du voyage de Siam, Choisy wrote several memoirs connected with Siam before, during and after his journey. The abbé took advantage during the return voyage of the presence on board of his vessel of three Siamese envoys to France, and of several missionaries with a long experience in Southeast Asia, to give free rein to his curiosity. All this enabled him to describe in broad outline the exotic kingdom of Siam in the daily entries of his Journal and in the memoirs mentionned above.Van der Cruysse Dirk. L'abbé de Choisy, historien du Siam et de l'Asie du Sud-Est. In: Aséanie 1, 1998. pp. 107-122