Charles-Alexis-Adrien Duhérissier de Gerville (Gerville-la-Forêt (Manche) 19 September 1769 —
Valognes (Manche) 26 July 1853) was a scholarly French
antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...
,
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
,
naturalist
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
and
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
from an aristocratic family of
Normandy
Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy.
Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...
. His earliest concerns were with
natural history
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
and
botany
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
and his
numismatic
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals, and related objects.
Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inclu ...
collection, but he became one of the small group forming the first
architectural historians in
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
.
Biography
His early studies were at the college of
Coutances, followed by studies in the law at
Caen
Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...
. With the outbreak of the
French Revolution, he joined other aristocratic
émigré
An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social exile or self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French verb ''émigrer'' meaning "to emigrate".
French Huguenots
Many French Hugueno ...
s, travelled in England and fought in the
First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition () was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797, initially against the constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French Republic that succeeded it. They were only loosely allied ...
or "Army of the Princes" and did not return until 1801, when he settled once again on his family estates at Gerville in Normandy and devoted his leisure to pursuing the local history of the
Cotentin
The Cotentin Peninsula (, ; ), also known as the Cherbourg Peninsula, is a peninsula in Normandy that forms part of the northwest coast of France. It extends north-westward into the English Channel, towards Great Britain. To its west lie the Gu ...
, from an antiquarian point of view. In 1811 he moved to
Valognes (Manche), pursuing
botanical field research and the
nascent field of geology, and searching out ancient written materials that cast light on local history, while he undertook, from 1814 onwards, to compile a pioneering inventory of some four or five hundred churches of La Manche (Noell 2005); some of these materials were published as ''Voyage archéologique dans la Manche'' (1818–1820). He and his fellow members in the Société des Antiquaires de Normandie, founded in 1824 – the abbé
Gervais de la Rue in Rouen,
Auguste Le Prévost and
Arcisse de Caumont – virtually formed a "travelling school of architectural connoisseurship" (Noell).
In 1818 Duhérissier de Gerville used the expression ‘'romane’'— though in the sense of
Romance languages
The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
— in a letter to Auguste Le Prévost; Gerville's friend Arcisse de Caumont is more correctly accorded the honour of publicly applying, in French, the label ''
Romane, i.e. "Romanesque"'' style to architecture of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, in his ''Essaie sur l'architecture du moyen âge, particulièrement en Normandie'', 1824. In fact the
OED cites first uses in English of 1715 about the languages, and 1819 about the architectural style. It was a more inclusive, European term for the massive round-arched style that had been recognized in Norman work in England, where the term "
Norman architecture
The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used f ...
" was first used in 1817 by the
antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...
Thomas Rickman, in his published essay ''An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation'': English architectural historians long retained the term "Norman" for that version of the Romanesque.
Duhérissier de Gerville was a correspondent of the
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres).
History ...
. He encouraged a local man of Valognes,
Léopold Victor Delisle by engaging him to copy manuscripts in his collection, and taught him enough of the basics of
paleography
Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...
that he was able to gain entrance to the École des Chartres in 1846, and pursue a distinguished scholarly career at the
Bibliothèque nationale
A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a p ...
; he was a member of the general council for the
département of La Manche, but withdrew at the time of the
Revolution of 1830 and, a confirmed
legitimist
The Legitimists () are royalists who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession to the French crown of the descendants of the eldest branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They reject the claim of t ...
like others of the ''Antiquaires de la Normandie'', refused the cross of the
Légion d'honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
offered him under
Louis Philippe.
Gerville published papers and antiquarian notes on the towns and
Roman road
Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...
s of the
Cotentin peninsula
The Cotentin Peninsula (, ; ), also known as the Cherbourg Peninsula, is a peninsula in Normandy that forms part of the northwest coast of France. It extends north-westward into the English Channel, towards Great Britain. To its west lie the Gu ...
, on
Merovingian
The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...
studies, and on
Mont-Saint-Michel
Mont-Saint-Michel (; Norman: ''Mont Saint Miché''; ) is a tidal island and mainland commune in Normandy, France.
The island lies approximately off France's north-western coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches and is in ...
, which were collected as ''Études géographiques et historiques sur le département de la Manche,'' (Cherbourg 1854). Part of his rich collection of manuscripts he bequeathed to the archives of La Manche, and part to his protégé
Léopold Delisle.
Duhérissier de Gerville is very likely to have been intended as the person honoured in the
gastropod
Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda ().
This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...
name ''Mitrella gervillii'' (Payraudeau 1826). The Devonian coral Calceola gervillei (now known to belong to the genus Rhizophyllum) was similarly very likely to have named for him by Bayle (1878) although Bayle's material was collected by de Verneuil.
[BAYLE, E., 1878. Fossiles principaux des terrains de la France. Explication de la Carte Géologique de France 4 (1), 1-158.]
Notes
References
Destin: Biographies: Charles Alexis-Adrien de GervilleMatthias Noell, "Classement und classification: Ordnungssysteme der Denkmalpflege in Frankreich und Deutschland", in Symposium ''Nachdenken über Denkmalpflege'', and note 7Origins of the classification "Romanesque" (pdf file).
*Vincent Juhel, ed. ''Arcisse de Caumont (1801–1873): Érudit normand et fondateur de l’archéologie française'' (Caen: Société des antiquaires de Normandie) 2005.
.
("doté d'un mauvais caractère")
*BAYLE, E., 1878. Fossiles principaux des terrains de la France. Explication de la Carte Géologique de France 4 (1), 1-158.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerville, Charles-Alexis-Adrien Duherissier De
1769 births
1853 deaths
French naturalists
Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
French archaeologists