Bernard Germain de Lacépède

Bernard Germain Etienne Médard de La Ville- sur- Illon, comte de Lacépède, occasionally de La Cepede ( born December 26, 1756 in Agen in Guyenne; † October 6, 1825 in Epinay- sur -Seine ) was a French naturalist, zoologist and ichthyologist. In addition, he first held the office of the Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour (Grand- Chancelier de Légion d' Honneur ) and was also still an opera composer.

In biological taxonomy and literature his name is usually shortened as indicated Lacépède.

Life

Bernard's father paid close to his son's education, and the study of Buffon 's Histoire Naturelle woke early Bernards interest in natural history, which he then mainly devoted. In his youth he served in the Bavarian troops, then turned himself in Paris the natural sciences.

Music also played a role in his life, he learned to play piano and organ. He composed several operas, some of which were not published:

  • Armide (1777, lost)
  • Omphale (1783, not published )
  • Scanderbeg ( 1785 )
  • Cyrus ( 1785 )
  • Alcine (1786, not published )

His musical skills were highly appreciated by Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck ( 1714-1787 ). In the years 1781-1785 he wrote two volumes of La poétique de la musique.

Meanwhile, Bernard wrote two scientific papers: Essai sur l' Electricité et naturelle Artificielle (1781 ) and Physique générale ( 1782-84 ). These works earned him a close friend of Georges- Louis Le Clerc, comte de Buffon (1707-1788) a, (now the Jardin des Plantes ) appointed him as assistant curator of natural history collection at the former Jardin du Roi and his continuation of his work Histoire naturelle suggested. This Bernard published under the titles Histoire des quadrupèdes ovipares et des serpens ( 1788-90 ) and Histoire naturelle of reptiles (1789 ).

At the time of the French Revolution and Napoleon, he became professor of natural history, a director of Paris and 1791 President of the Legislative Assembly. Because was sought for his life because of his disapproving attitude to the unrest in the time of the reign of terror 1793/94, he had left Paris and came under in Leuville -sur -Orge, but returned late in 1794 back again and was curator of the natural history collection in the Jardin du Roi and devoted most of his time there studying reptiles and fish.

In 1798 he published the first volume of the Histoire naturelle of poissons, which until 1803 was followed by a year another. Because of his political career, Bernard had from 1799, when he became a senator, hardly any time for his natural history studies and had to put them in the background. Nevertheless, he managed in 1804 nor the Histoire naturelle of cétacées bring out. In 1801 he became President of the Senate, 1803 Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour, and in 1804 Minister. After the return of the Bourbons in 1814 he was in his capacity as a senator and member of the new parliamentary upper house and so in 1819 a peer of France.

Later, Bernard was still the 18- volume work Histoire générale, physique et civile de l'Europe finish, which was published posthumously in 1826. On October 6, 1825 Bernard died at his country seat Epinay- sur- Seine at Saint- Denis.

Works

  • Les ages de la nature et de l' histoire espèce humaine. Paris 1830 p.m.
  • Histoire naturelle de l' homme. Pitois -Le Vrault, Paris 1827 p.m.
  • Histoire générale, physique et civile de l'Europe. Cello, Mame, Delaunay - Vallée & de Mat, Paris, Brussels 1826 pm
  • Histoire naturelle of quadrupèdes ovipares, serpents, poissons et cétacées. Eymery, Paris 1825.
  • Histoire naturelle of cétacées. Plassan, Paris 1804.
  • Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de Dolomieu. Boss Ange, Paris 1802.
  • La menagerie du Museum national d' histoire naturelle. Miger, Paris 1801-04.
  • Discours d' ouverture et de clôture du cours de zoology. Plassan, Paris 1801.
  • Discours d' ouverture et de clôture du cours d' histoire naturelle. Plassan, Paris, 1799.
  • Histoire naturelle of poissons. Plassan, Paris 1798-1803.
  • Discours d' ouverture et de clôture du cours d' histoire naturelle des animaux Vertebres et a sang rouge. Plassan, Paris 1798.
  • Discours d' ouverture du Cours d' histoire naturelle. Paris 1797.
  • Histoire naturelle of quadrupèdes ovipares et des serpens. de Thou, Paris 1788-90.
  • Vie de Buffon. Maradan, Amsterdam, 1788.
  • La poétique de la musique. Paris in 1785.
  • Physique générale. Paris 1782-84.
  • Essai sur l' Electricité et naturelle Artificielle. Paris, 1781.
Christoph Willibald Gluck House of Bourbon Saint-Denis Integrated Authority File
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