After studying with the Jesuits in Dijon, he became an adviser to the Burgundy Parliament in 1730. His interest in classical philology induced him to set off for Italy in 1739, in search of manuscripts in the country's most important libraries that would help him to deepen his understanding of Sallust. His tour of Italy is recorded in the Lettres historiques et critiques sur l'Italie (Ponthieu, Paris 1739), a work written in epistolary form that was a great success in France. Charles de Brosses continued his classical studies in the following years, becoming a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres in 1746 and publishing the book Lettres sur l'état actuel de la ville souterraine d'Herculée, which was also translated into Italian. One of the author's most interesting works is the Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes, in which Charles de Brosses proposed Oceania as the fifth continent, an intuition that would open the way for future discoveries. With the ascent of Louis XVI to the throne, de Brosses became president of the Parliament of Burgundy, but went on cultivating his humanistic studies despite his career in politics.