The Correspondent

Little is known about the family and early life of Isaac de Colom du Clos.

The basic facts are given in Pütter, Versuch einer academischen Gelehrten-Geschichte, 1:193–95.

He was born on 20 January 1708 in Müncheberg, a town located halfway between Berlin and the Oder River. It had recently become home to a colony of Huguenot refugees. Beginning in 1721 the young man attended the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin, while also taking advantage of the French Gymnasium. The Berlin consistory accepted him, on examination, as a candidatus ministerii with the freedom to preach. He went on to study at Jena and Leiden. In 1730 he became tutor to Prince Carl Edzard, the heir apparent of East Friesland. After he became ruler, in 1734, the prince made Colom a privy chamber secretary and then librarian. Carl Edzard, the last prince of his line, died in May 1744, whereupon Colom accepted the post of French-language teacher at the Pädagogium in Ilfeld. In August 1747 he came to the University of Göttingen as lector publicus linguae Gallicae. A year later he earned a master’s degree and in 1751 was made an extraordinary professor of philosophy. His promotion to ordinary professor occurred in 1764. He continued to teach French at Göttingen until his death, on 25 January 1795.

The three books that Colom published grew out of his teaching responsibilities. Principes de la langue françoise, oder Auszug der nöthigsten Fundamenten der frantzösischen Sprache first appeared in 1745; the much enlarged fifth edition came out in 1787. Reflexions et remarques sur la maniere d’ecrire des lettres, sur les regles particulieres du stile, et sur la versification françoise saw five editions between 1749 and 1787. The first edition of the two-volume Modelles de lettres sur toutes sortes de sujets was published in 1760–61; the third, in 1782–83.