Following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he was brought as a child to Geneva, haven of religious freedom for his family. Endowed with a broad-reaching culture, as gifted in the arts as in scientific subjects, mathematics or geography, he is the stereotype of the men of wisdom who contributed so much to the intellectual explosion of Geneva in the 18th century.

Senebier called him “the Genevan Socrates” (le Socrate genevois). The State Council awarded him membership of the bourgeoisie in 1727 in recognition of the work he had accomplished as curator of the Public Library.

His work was in keeping with the general pattern of editorial tradition in Geneva, since he helped with a French translation of the New Testament in 1726. His modesty is proverbial and was, in the eyes of Rousseau, the image of Geneva.  He even refused the philosophy chair that the Academy offered him in 1723.