Léopold Victor Delisle

Léopold Victor Delisle ( born October 24, 1826 in Valognes, † July 22, 1910 in Chantilly ) is a French historian and librarian; he was administrateur général of the Bibliothèque nationale de France from 1874 until 1905.

Léopold Delisle grew up in Valognes, where he met the historian and archaeologist Charles de Gerville, who introduced him to the work with the manuscripts of the medieval Normandy. He completed his studies at the École des Chartes in 1849 with a thesis on the tax revenues of Normandy in the 12th century from ( " Essai sur les revenus publics en Normandie au 12e siècle ")., He dedicated his first researches the history of his native region, his work on the farm in Normandy in the Middle Ages ( " Études sur la condition de la classe agricole et l' état ​​de l'agriculture au Moyen Âge en Normandie ", 1851), which condenses an enormous amount of facts from the local archives, was unchanged in 1905 issued new and is still valid.

1852, at the age of 26, he entered the Department of Manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale one. As early as 1859 he was elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. In 1868 he became a member of the Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et arts de Rouen. He worked on the volumes 22 to 24 of Recueil des Historiens the Gauls et de la France.

When the government decided to issue a general catalog of the plungers of the National Library, Delisle was responsible as an acclaimed author of such works for this major project. He introduced in 1881 the four volumes of the Cabinet of manuscrits de la Bibliothèque impériale done.

The Bibliothèque nationale

In 1874 he followed Jules Taschereau, Office of the General Administrator of the National Library, a position he held until 1905. During his tenure, she acquired by gift, foundations and purchases, including a portion of the manuscripts of the Earl of Ashburnham: he could show that the majority of the manuscripts of French origin, the Earl of Ashburnham had bought in France, especially those of the bookseller Barrois, the comte Libri, inspector General of the library at the time of King Louis- Philippe I, had been stolen, and then published the Catalogue des fonds Libri et Barrois of manuscrits ( 1888).

On March 8, 1903, he celebrated his 50th anniversary of service in the National Library, on February 12, 1905, he went into retirement.

Works (selection)

• Le cabinet of manuscrits de la Bibliothèque impériale; étude sur la formation de ce les éléments d'une dépôt comprenant histoire de la calligraphy de la miniature, de la reliure, et du commerce des livres à Paris avant l'invention de l' imprimerie, 3 vol. impériale in fol., Paris, Imprimerie, 1868-1881. Tome 1
• Tome 3 supplément: List of manuscrits cités

Bibliography

• Paul Lacombe: Bibliography of the travaux de M. Léopold Delisle, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1902, XXXVIII, 511 pp., Supplément ( 1902-1910 ), Paris, H. Leclerc, 1911 In-4 ̊, XXIV- 87 p.
• Yann Potin: " Le dernier garde de la librairie du Louvre I:. Léopold Delisle et son édition of invent aires ", in: Gazette du Livre médiéval, 36 (2000 ), pp. 36-42
• Yann Potin: " Le dernier garde de la librairie du Louvre II. Éditions de publication catalogs et de sources au XIXe siècle ", in: Gazette du Livre médiéval, 37 (2000), p. 1-8