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[1] and 1st alderman in 1788.[2] 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.
↑Teissier, Octave; Laugier, Joseph-François (1883). Armorial des échevins de Marseille de 1660 à 1790 (in French). Marseille: Société anonyme de l'imprimerie marseillaise. p.60.
↑Teissier, Octave; Laugier, Joseph-François (1883). Armorial des échevins de Marseille de 1660 à 1790 (in French). Marseille: Société anonyme de l'imprimerie marseillaise. p.80.
Masson, Paul (1914). "VI: La vie intellectuelle". Les Bouches-du-Rhône - Encyclopédie départementale (in French). Marseille: Archives départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône. pp.277–280.
