Cimetière du Père-Lachaise (continued): #27: Constantin Volney

The pyramid grave of Constantin François de Chassebœuf, Count of Volney (1757–1820), Volney being a contraction of Voltaire and Ferney. Volney was a philosopher, historian and orientalist, and is considered to be a precursor of the later ethnologists, anthropologists and sociologists. His Les Ruines, ou méditations sur les révolutions des empires (1791) is his most noted work,  which is a history of philosophy, a meditation taking as its starting point the ruins of Palmyre. In the book, he sees a necessity for religious tolerance.