Antoine Caillot

Antoine Caillot (29 December 1759, in Lyon – c. 1839) was a French man of letters.

Caillot was identified as a priest and a confessor to prominent French noblewomen.[1] When the ecclesiastical oath was repealed, he left priesthood, married, was arrested during the reign of Terror and escaped death, so they say, by a confusion of names.

He was a teacher, bookseller and freemason. He published numerous books, mostly historical, moral or religious compilations as well as pamphlets, sometimes published under the pseudonyms "Gaspard l'Avisé" or "Abbé petit-maître".[2] During the riots leading to the French Revolution, he recorded accounts involving socio-political developments. He noted, for instance, that women were not spared in the "political contagion".[1] His works also covered etiquette and social norms. The following dictum is attributed to the author: "it is important then, in order to respond to the demands of nature and of society, to contract the habit of domestic work at a young age".[3] This came with an explanation that its absence will lead to a lazy and untrained daughter.[3]

The Nouveau dictionnaire proverbial, satirique et burlesque, plus complet que ceux qui ont paru jusqu'a ce jour, a l'usage de tout le monde which he published in 1826[4] was little more than a copy of the Dictionaire comique, satyrique, critique, burlesque, libre & proverbial by Philibert-Joseph Le Roux.