Coste, Pierre. The Life of Lewis of Bourbon, Late Prince of Conde. Digested into Annals. With Many Curious Remarks on th...

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Coste, Pierre (1668-1747), translator and writer. "In 1684 he went to the college and the academy in Geneva, where he studied with, among others, the philosopher Jean-Robert Chouet, a moderate Cartesian. In May Coste met Charles Pacius de la Motte (c.1667Ð1751), who became his lifelong friend and his biographer. Coste studied philosophy and theology at Lausanne from spring 1686 until April 1687, and then theology in Zurich until April 1688. He then studied theology at Leiden with Frederik Spanheim and Etienne Le Moine before going to live in Amsterdam. He was admitted as a proponent of the synod of Amsterdam on 23 August 1690...Coste made his writing debut with an anonymous Discours sur la Philosophie, a brief history of philosophy in Cours Entier de Philosophie (1691) by the Cartesian Pierre-Sylvain Regis. Then came Coste's first translation, rendering the second part of Nouvelle Bibliotheque des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques (1692) into Latin. He presented himself as a historian with his Histoire de la Vie de Louis de Bourbon II, du nom, Prince de Conde (Cologne, 1693), which also contained a survey of European history from 1640 to 1688; it is a meticulous but not very inspiring work. Coste was also the translator of the first part of the biography of Oliver Cromwell by Gregorio Leti, Jean Le Clerc's father-in-law, which he translated anonymously from the Italian. It was published in Amsterdam in 1694. Le Clerc persuaded, and helped, Coste to translate John Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education (Amsterdam, 1695) into French. Locke later discovered who was responsible for the anonymous translation, of which he had a good opinion... After being delayed by illness, Coste left for England in August 1697 to accept a position at Oates, Essex, as the tutor of Francis Masham, the only son of Francis Masham and Damaris Cudworth, daughter of the philosopher Ralph Cudworth. His appointment had been recommended by Locke who had been staying with the Mashams since 1691; Coste also acted as Locke's secretary."