This subtle name change helped assimilate him into French society.
Jean-Paul Mara (1743-1760)
His father, Juan Salvador Mara, was a Spanish Sardinian who was a Mercedarian friar before becoming a Calvinist, and his mother, Louise Cabrol, was a French Huguenot Genevan.
Jean-Paul Marat (1760-1793)
After moving to France to attend university at the age of 17, he inserted a \”t\” at the end of his surname in order to Francize it.
He would become a journalist during the French Revolution, known for his fiery rhetoric targeted against the leaders of the revolution. Marat would eventually become an icon to the Montagnards Faction of the Jacobins.
Sources
- Jean-Paul Marat in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- \”Jean-Paul Marat.\” Wikipedia.
- Loomis, Stanley (1990). Paris in the Terror. Dorset House Publishing Co Inc.
- Robert, Adolphe; Cougny, Gaston (1891). Dictionnaire des parlementaires français (in French). Paris. p. 252.