Ledru, Andre-Pierre

Andre-Pierre Ledru (1761-1825) was a French priest and after the Revolution became a historian and later was appointed a professor of law. He also squeezed in a military career as a general and was wounded at the Battle of Jena (1806).

In a two-volume work published in 1810, Voyage aux îles de Ténériffe, la Trinité, St-Thomas, Ste-Croix et Porto-Rico^[1261], he voiced his support for the idea of Atlantis in the Atlantic.

However, Thorwald C. Franke‘s research has revealed “that this is clearly not the case but also shows how this error came about. In fact, the term ‘ Atlantis ‘ is there, but it wasn’t introduced into this book by Ledru himself! Rather, as Franke states, ‘a historical digression from Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert Sonnini de Manoncourt (1751-1812), a French naturalist who was for a time Buffon’s secretary and co-authored a book on reptiles with Latreille. In this digression, Sonnini presented Golbéry ‘s thesis about Atlantis in the Canary Islands as an interesting possibility, without deciding to do so himself.’ Ledru in any case has not commented on this or taken it up in any way, and so here is neither from him nor from Sonnini regarding Atlantis making a clear statement in favor of the Canary Islands – or any other location in the Atlantic.”^(a)

^(a) André Pierre Ledru – Atlantisforschung.de