Venance Payot (June 26, 1826 – March 13, 1902) was a naturalist, glaciologist, alpine mountain-guide, scholar, author, and two-time mayor of
Chamonix
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc ( frp, Chamôni), more commonly known as Chamonix, is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It was the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924. In 2019, it had ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. He published a wide range of early scientific literature relating to the mountains of the
Mont Blanc massif
The Mont Blanc massif (french: Massif du Mont-Blanc; it, Massiccio del Monte Bianco) is a mountain range in the Alps, located mostly in France and Italy, but also straddling Switzerland at its northeastern end. It contains eleven major indepen ...
and undertook some of the earliest continued measurements of the movement of glaciers within that mountain range. He has been posthumously credited in mountaineering literature with being the youngest person (as of 1843) to have climbed Mont Blanc, and would have been sixteen years old at the time; other sources have challenged this.
Personal life
Payot was born in Chamonix on June 26, 1826. He was the seventh child of his mother, Marie Pierrette Simond (1797–1852). His father was Pierre-Joseph Payot (1791–1858), who was a mountain guide and who led the writer
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...
on a journey to the
Mer de Glace
The Mer de Glace ("Sea of Ice") is a valley glacier located on the northern slopes of the Mont Blanc massif, in the French Alps. It is 7.5 km long and deep but, when all its tributary glaciers are taken into account, it can be regarded as ...
, accompanied by the young Venance.
Payot died in Chamonix on March 13, 1902, leaving behind at least one son, Paul.
Mountain guide
Payot first became a porter, helping to carry the provisions and equipment of clients and guides into the mountains, and then became an aspirant (trainee) guide. He was then accepted into the Chamonix Guides Company (Compagnie des guides du Chamonix), receiving his certificate of admission on 11 May 1852.
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Youngest ascent of Mont Blanc
Payot has been reported in respected 20th-century mountaineering literature as being the youngest person at that time to have reached the summit of Mont Blanc. In 1843, and at the age of 16, he is stated to have been amongst a party which reached the summit of Mont Blanc. However, one source states that he was the leader of the party, whilst another source subsequently cast doubt on this accolade, suggesting the inclusion of Venance Payot's name as leader of the party could have resulted from confusion between the names of V. Payot and H. Jacot in a published account.
Naturalist
He was an avid collector of minerals, rocks and plants, and came to be a respected and renowned naturalist. Some of the carefully labelled specimens he amassed are now in Château d'Annecy
The Château d'Annecy is a restored castle which dominates the old French town of Annecy in the Haute-Savoie '' département''. It was bought by the town, restored and transformed into a museum, ''le musée-château d'Annecy''. The castle is li ...
and in the Chamonix Alpine Museum. He also built up a considerable collection of books on the natural sciences and later donated some 385 items to Annecy Library, along with a 2,000 franc sum to maintain and expand it.
He was a member of the , founded in 1607, and contributed articles to that association's journal of research in the Savoy region. Payot made many botanical studies of the mountains of the Mont Blanc massif
The Mont Blanc massif (french: Massif du Mont-Blanc; it, Massiccio del Monte Bianco) is a mountain range in the Alps, located mostly in France and Italy, but also straddling Switzerland at its northeastern end. It contains eleven major indepen ...
, publishing numerous academic books or pamphlets on the subject, including vascular plants, ferns, bryophyte
The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited in ...
s, and herpetology.
Geologist
Payot published the first systematic account of the minerals of the Mont Blanc area in 1873. His list, titled "Statistique minéralogique des environs du Mt–Blanc", catalogued 90 mineral types.
Glaciologist
In 1861, Payot published the first account of bodies lost in a glacier in the Mont Blanc range being rediscovered 40 years later and some lower down from the point where they were lost. Payot's studies of the glaciers of the Mont Blanc massif resulted in his being named among some of the first glaciologists, along with the likes of Tyndall
Tyndall (the original spelling, also Tyndale, "Tindol", Tyndal, Tindoll, Tindall, Tindal, Tindale, Tindle, Tindell, Tindill, and Tindel) is the name of an English family taken from the land they held as tenants in chief of the Kings of Engla ...
, Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
, and Agassiz
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history.
Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...
.
Local politician
Payot was twice mayor of the town of Chamonix: between 1863–1864, and between 1881–1882. He later obtained a seat on the Haute-Savoie borough council from 1892 to 1898.
In 1866 he worked to install a new wooden refuge for climbers attempting to climb Mont Blanc via the Grand Mulets route.[
In 1892 he was at the forefront of a campaign to stop the construction of the Montenvers Railway (from Chamonix to Montenvers) near the ]Mer de Glace
The Mer de Glace ("Sea of Ice") is a valley glacier located on the northern slopes of the Mont Blanc massif, in the French Alps. It is 7.5 km long and deep but, when all its tributary glaciers are taken into account, it can be regarded as ...
. He argued that it would not attract tourists to the town, but would adversely affect the town's economy by taking trade away from the mule owners and porters who had previously taken visitors and their belongings up the mountain path.
Honours
In 2006 a book was published containing photographs of over 90 of Payot's original, hand-labelled plant specimens.
Selected publications
* ''Herbier des Alpes, ou collection de plantes alpines recueillies dans les montagnes de Chamonix qui avoisinent le Mont- Blanc'', by Venance Payot and Louis Coppier, Bonneville : A. Chavin, 1844.
* ''Guide du botaniste au Jardin de la Mer de glace'', Geneva, 1854.
* ''Guide-itinéraire au Mont-Blanc, à Chamonix et dans les vallées voisines'', Geneva : C.Gruaz ; Chamonix, 1857
* ''Catalogue des fougères, prêles et lycopodiacées des environs du Mont-Blanc…'', Paris : Cherbuliez, 1860.
* ''Erpétologie, malacologie et paléontologie des environs du Mont-Blanc'', Lyon : impr de Barret, 1864.
* ''Lithologie – catalogue de la série des roches de la chaîne du Mont-Blanc'', 3rd edition. Genève : impr. Soullier et Wirth, 1872.
* ''Géologie et minéralogie des environs du Mont-Blanc'', Geneva : H.Georg, 1873.
* ''Guide du botaniste ou catalogue des plantes rares de la Suisse française'', Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...
: impr. Vue S. Genton and Sons, 1878.
* ''Florule du Mont-Blanc : guide du botaniste et du touriste dans les Alpes Pennines'', Paris : Sandoz and Thuillier, 18… 1886 . 3 volumes : 1 Phanerogams ; 2 Cryptogams ; 3 Bryophytes.
* ''Oscillations des quatre grands glaciers de la vallée de Chamonix et énumération des ascensionnistes au Mont-Blanc…'', Genève, J.Sandoz, 1879
* ''Description pétrographique des roches des terrains cristallins primaires et sédimentaires du massif de la chaîne du Mont-Blanc…'', Geneva : impr. Richter, 1885
* ''Excursion au Mont Lachat et au pavillon de Bellevue'', 1895
* ''Statistique minéralogique et pétrographique des roches de la chaîne du Mont-Blanc''. Lyon : impr. L. Jacquet, 1895.
* ''Énumération des lichens des roches des Grands Mulets''. Genève : impr. Romet, 1899.
Further reading
* Vivian, R. (1986) L'épopée Vallot au Mont Blanc,
* Vivian, R. (2005) Les glaciers du Mont-Blanc, La Fontaine de Siloé,
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Payot, Venance
1826 births
1902 deaths
French naturalists
French glaciologists
Mayors of places in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
People from Chamonix
19th-century French writers
French science writers