Paul Lacroix (; 27 February 1806 – 16 October 1884) was a French author and journalist. He is known best by his pseudonym P.L. Jacob,

bibliophile Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. A bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves and frequently reads and/or collects books. Profile The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire and collect books, often ama ...

, or Bibliophile Jacob, suggested by his great interest in libraries and books generally.

Biography

Lacroix was born in Paris, the son of a novelist. He was a prolific and varied writer, composing more than twenty historical romances and a variety of serious historical works, including histories of

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

and of the Czar

Nicholas I of Russia Nicholas I , group=pron ( – ) was List of Russian rulers, Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland. He was the third son of Paul I of Russia, Paul I and younger brother of his predecessor, Alexander I ...

. He was the joint author with Ferdinand Séré of a five-volume work, ''Le moyen âge et la renaissance'' (1847), a profusely illustrated standard work on the manners, customs and dress of the Renaissance. He also wrote many monographs on phases of the history of culture, including Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period. Someone using the name Pierre Dufour published an exhaustive six-volume ''Histoire de la prostitution'' (1851–1854), which has always been attributed to Lacroix. His works concerning bibliography were also numerous, as was his periodical ''Revue universelle des arts'' niversal Review of the Arts which he initiated in 1855. In 1855 he was appointed librarian of the Arsenal Library, Paris. He married Apolline Biffe on 7 May 1834. She lived with Paul Lacroix's collaborator, art collector

Théophile Thoré-Bürger Étienne-Joseph-Théophile Thoré (better known as Théophile Thoré-Bürger) (23 June 1807 – 30 April 1869) was a French journalist and art critic. He is best known today for rediscovering the work of painter Johannes Vermeer and several o ...

, for more than a decade until his death.

Works (selection)

* ''L’Origine des cartes à jouer'', 1835 * ''L'Homme au Masque de Fer'', 1837 * ''Bibliothèque de M. G. de Pixerécourt'', 1838 * ''Bibliothèque dramatique de M. de Soleinne'', 1843-1845 * ''Bibliothèque dramatique de Pont de Vesle'', 1846 * ''Costumes historiques de la France d’après les monuments les plus authentiques'', 1852 * ''Histoire de la prostitution'', 1853 * ''Œuvres complètes de François Villon'', nouvelle édition revue, corrigée et mise en ordre avec des notes historiques et littéraires, par P. L. Jacob, Bibliophile, Paris, P. Jannet, 1854 * ''Plus romanesque aventure de ma vie, Paris'', P. Henneton, 1854
read on Gallica
. * ''Ballets et mascarades de Cour, de Henri III à Louis XIV (1581-1652)'', 1868-1870 * ''Vie militaire et religieuse au Moyen Âge et à l’époque de la Renaissance'', 1869 * ''Aventures de l’

abbé de Choisy ''Abbé'' (from Latin ''abbas'', in turn from Greek language, Greek , ''abbas'', from Aramaic ''abba'', a title of honour, literally meaning "the father, my father", emphatic state of ''abh'', "father") is the French word for an abbot. It is th ...

habillé en femme'', 1870 * ''Mœurs, usages et costumes au Moyen Âge et à l’époque de la Renaissance'', 1871-1877 * ''Œuvres poétiques de Marc-Claude de Buttet'', 2 tomes, in -8, 1880.

English translations published in the United States

* ''History of prostitution among all the peoples of the world: from the most remote antiquity to the present day'' 3. vol. (1926) Translated from the original French (''Histoire de la prostitution'', 1853) by Samuel Putnam * ''Danse Macabre''

832 __NOTOC__ Year 832 ( DCCCXXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 832nd year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 832nd year of the 1st millennium, ...

translated by

Brian Stableford Brian Michael Stableford (born 25 July 1948) is a British academic, critic and science fiction writer who has published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped ...

, 2013, Black Coat Press,

References

Sources

Ferdinand Hoefer Jean Chrétien Ferdinand Hoefer (German: ''Ferdinand Höfer'', 21 April 1811, Döschnitz – 4 May 1878) was a German-French physician and lexicographer. He is now known for his many works on the history of science. Selected works *''Élément ...

, ''Nouvelle Biographie générale'', t. 27, Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1861, (p. 595–8).

External links

Paul Lacroix
on data.bnf.fr * * * *
Works by Paul Lacroix (P.L. Jacob)
at

openlibrary.org Open Library is an online project intended to create "one web page for every book ever published". Created by Aaron Swartz, Brewster Kahle, Alexis Rossi, Anand Chitipothu, and Rebecca Malamud, Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive, a ...

''Suite de la Convalescence du vieux conteur''
by P.-L. Jacob, bibliophile on Gallica {{DEFAULTSORT:Lacroix, Paul Writers from Paris 1806 births 1884 deaths 19th-century French dramatists and playwrights 19th-century French historians French bibliophiles French bibliographers Officers of the Legion of Honour