MONTOR, JEAN-ALEXIS-FRANÇOIS ARTAUD de – French diplomat and writer, b. 21 July 1772 in Paris, d. there 12 Nov. 1849. Attached to the French legation in Stockholm in 1792, he then joined the royalist émigré army commanded by the Prince of Condé. Sent on a mission to Rome, he grew fond of Italy, formed friendships with many people, and acquired an uncommon knowledge of men and affairs. After the coup of 18 Brumaire (1799), though remaining attached to the Bourbons, he transferred his services to the new regime and became first secretary of the French legation in Rome, under Cacault.
In 1806 he was chargé d’affaires in Tuscany, recalled to Paris the following year, and appointed imperial censor; he took advantage of this position to devote himself to writing works of various kinds. Since he had been in Stockholm in 1792 when Gustavus III was assassinated, he seized the occasion to publish the *Histoire de l’assassinat de Gustave III, roi de Suède, par un officier polonais, témoin oculaire* (Paris 1802). In 1808 he issued under the pseudonym “member of the Academy of Cortona” a volume on Italian painting before Raphael, which later saw two further editions (*Considérations sur l’état de la peinture en Italie dans les quatre siècles qui ont précédé Raphaël*, ibid. 1808), and a book on the catacombs of Rome (*Voyage dans les catacombes de Rome*, ibid. 1810), with a partial translation of Bosio’s well-known work. From 1811 to 1813 he also published a translation of the *Divine Comedy*. With the Restoration he returned to diplomatic service. He served as legation secretary in Rome from 1814 to 1816, returned in 1819, and remained until 1830. Upon the fall of the Bourbons he retired to private life, devoting himself exclusively to letters. He wrote extensively, especially publishing monographs on the popes Pius VII, Leo XII, and Pius VIII, whom he had known personally during his diplomatic activity in Rome (*Histoire du pape Pie VII*, 2 vols., Paris 1836; *Histoire du pape Léon XII*, 2 vols., ibid. 1843; *Histoire du pape Pie VIII*, 2 vols., ibid. 1844).