Jacques Joseph Thulis was born into a family of rich merchants; his father Pierre Thulis and his brother Jean-Baptiste were respectively 2nd alderman in 1753 and 1st alderman in 1788. After studying at the Jesuit college, Joseph was sent to
Cairo to manage a branch of his father's company; he stayed there for a little over six years. He returned to
Marseille in 1772 and devoted himself to
mathematics,
physics and
astronomy. In 1786 he went to
Hyères where an observatory equipped with good English-made facilities had been installed by the
Duke of Saxe-Gotha. In the company of the Duke and
Franz Xaver von Zach he undertook a trip to
Italy to visit the main observatories of this country. On 20 November 1782 he was elected to the
Académie de Marseille. The
Marseille Observatory has a graphite drawing representing the portrait of this astronomer. == References ==