Jean_Denis_Barbie_du_Bocage_AGE_V12_1803

Jean-Denis Barbié (28 April 1760 - 28 December 1825) was a French geographer and cartographer, dean of the Faculté de lettres de Paris and a member of the

Institut de France The ; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the . It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute manages approximately ...

. He was also known as Barbié du Bocage and Barbier du Bocage.

Life

He was born in Paris to an architect and engraver from a bourgeois family from

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 ...

. He was orphaned aged nine, studied at the collège Mazarin and worked for a time in a prosecutor's chambers, where he had been sent by his mother, who hoped he would become one himself. Instead, in 1777, he became the only pupil of Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (1697–1782), first geographer to the King, who became a member 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 ...

in 1754 and of the

Académie royale des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the forefront of scientific d ...

in 1773. d'Anville trained him in geography and in 1786 Barbié added the new discoveries up to their time to d'Anville's world map. In 1780, aged 20, he was attached to

Louis XVI Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...

's foreign ministry under Charles Gravier de Vergennes (1719–1787), then from 1785 to the Cabinet des médailles in the

King's Library The King's Library was one of the most important collections of books and pamphlets of the Age of Enlightenment.British LibraryGeorge III Collection: the King's Libraryaccessed 26 May 2010 Assembled by George III (r.1760–1820), this schola ...

, then headed by abbé Barthélémy, producing the maps for the latter's ''Voyage du jeune Anarchis'' (''The Young Anarchis's Journey''). Christophe Charle, « 4. Barbié du Bocage (Jean-Denis) », Publications de l'Institut national de recherche pédagogique, vol. 2, no 1, 1985, p. 23–24 In 1792 he was put in charge of that library's geography section, but was dismissed from that role during the

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...

after having been imprisoned as a suspect on 2 September 1792. Under the Directory, in 1797, he was made a member of the geography committee in the office of the registry of the Interior Minister. Under the

Consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth countries, a ...

, in 1802, he was put in charge of several geographical projects run by the Ministry of War, including the 'carte de Morée' of the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

for the First Consul

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

, who would have had it sealed to give him the monopoly on using it. From 1803 to 1809 he geographer to the Foreign Ministry headed by Talleyrand and until 1807 was head of its geography store. In 1804 he drew up a map of Europe for state education. In 1806 he produced a map of the Principality of Benevento (within the Kingdom of Naples and confiscated from the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th c ...

) for Talleyrand, who had been made prince of that principality by Napoleon, as well as being put at the head of a project to produce a large map of France for the department of Bridges and Roads. He was also a member of the Institut de France - on 7 November 1806, under the

First French Empire The First French Empire or French Empire (; ), also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from ...

he was elected an ordinary member in the Class of History and Ancient Literature, beating the Hellenist J. B. Gail and replacing the historian abbé Louis-Pierre Anquetil-Duperron (1723-1806). Talleyrand was already a member and on Barbié du Bocage's election he saluted the "justice of his spirit" and "the extent of his knowledge". Also in Barbié du Bocage's class were Ameilhon, François-Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas,

Joseph Bonaparte Joseph Bonaparte (born Giuseppe di Buonaparte, ; ; ; 7 January 176828 July 1844) was a French statesman, lawyer, diplomat and older brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. During the Napoleonic Wars, the latter made him King of Naples (1806–1808), an ...

, Brial, Champagne, Marie-Gabriel-Florent-Auguste de Choiseul-Gouffier, Clavier, Bon-Joseph Dacier (perpetual secretary from 1782), Pierre-Claude-François Daunou, Desales, Dupont, Gail, Garran de Coulon, Gaussin, Gérando, Ginguené, Gosselin, Grégoire, Louis-Matthieu Langlès, Lakanal, Lanjuinas, Laporte du Teil, Lebreton, Lebrun, Levesque, Mentelle, Mercier, Millin, Antoine Mongez, Pastoret, Petit-Radel, Pougens, Quatremère de Quincy, Charles-Frédéric Reinhard, Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy, Talleyrand, Toulongeon and Visconti. In 1809 he became the first professor of ancient and modern geography at the Faculté de lettres de Paris, becoming dean of the Sorbonne in 1815 as successor to

Pierre-Paul Royer-Collard Pierre Paul Royer-Collard (; 21 June 1763 – 2 September 1845) was a French statesman and philosopher, leader of the Doctrinaires group during the Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830). Biography Early life He was born at Sompuis, near Vitry-le-F ...

, as well as sitting on the academic committee of Paris from 1821. He also taught at the École normale. He had also been a member of the Société d'émulation de Cambrai since 1803 and belonged to several foreign academies, joining the Florence Academy in 1807, the Royal Society of Goetingen in 1808, the Royal Institute of Holland in 1809, the

Ionian Academy The Ionian Academy () was the first Greek academic institution established in modern times. It was located in Corfu. It was established by the French during their administration of the island as the ''département'' of Corcyre, and became a univer ...

in 1810 and the Prussian Royal Academy in 1811. On 19 October 1814 he was made a knight of the Légion d'honneur by

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...

and kept his position at the Institut Royal under the First Restoration. When Louis was fully restored after the

Hundred Days The Hundred Days ( ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition (), marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII o ...

he made Barbié du Bocage a member of the

, reconstituted by royal decree on 21 March 1816. Also a member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of France from 1819 onwards, he was its president in 1820 and 1824. In 1821 he was one of the 217 founder members of the

Société de géographie The Société de Géographie (; ), is the world's oldest geographical society. It was founded in 1821 as the first Geographic Society. Since 1878, its headquarters have been at 184 Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris. The entrance is marked by two gig ...

, which "was instituted to compete for the progress of geography; it undertakes voyages to unknown lands; it proposes and awards prizes; it keeps up a correspondence with learned societies, travellers and geographers; it publishes unedited narratives as well as works and engraves maps". He presided over its first constituting meeting at the Hôtel de Ville de Paris on 15 December 1821 and he, Conrad Malte-Brun, Alexandre de Humboldt, Jean-François Champollion and Cuvier were all elected members of the society's central commission or committee. Specialising in maps of the ancient classical world, he played a part in almost all important French geographical projects of his time and gathered an important collection of maps, geographical documents and 1200 books, all sold after his death in May 1826. Author of a ''Précis de géographie ancienne'' (''Summary of Ancient Geography''), published in 1811 following the ''Abrégé de géographie'' (''Abstract of Geography'') by Pinkerton and Waldkenaer, he is best known for the maps for abbé Jean-Jacques Barthélemy's ''Voyage du jeune

Anacharsis Anacharsis (; ) was a Scythian prince and philosopher of uncertain historicity who lived in the 6th century BC. Life Anacharsis was the brother of the Scythian king Saulius, and both of them were the sons of the previous Scythian king, Gnurus ...

'' (1788 and 1799) and for the maps he contributed in 1782 (1st volume) and 1824 (2nd volume) to Marie-Gabriel-Florent-Auguste Choiseul-Gouffier's ''Voyage pittoresque en Grèce'' (''Picturesque Journey in Greece''). He died in Paris and is buried in the 11th division of the cimetière du Père-Lachaise.

Family and issue

On 16 February 1792 he married Antoinette Marie Delahaye (1773-1857), daughter of Guillaume-Nicolas Delahaye (1725-1802), chief engraver to the king and godson to the famous geographer

Guillaume Delisle Guillaume Delisle, also spelled Guillaume de l'Isle, or Guillelmo Delille (; 28 February 1675, Paris – 25 January 1726, Paris) was a French cartographer known for his popular and accurate maps of Europe and the newly explored Americas. Childhoo ...

(1675-1726). They had four children, including the geographers Jean Guillaume Barbié du Bocage (1793-1843) and Alexandre Barbié du Bocage (1798-1835), their third son Isidore-Louis (later a medical doctor after presenting a thesis on "the eruption of sudamina" in 1828 and a member of the Paris Anatomical Society until his death in 1834) and Marie-Adélaïde-Augustine (who married Antoine Lemoine, professor at the École des ponts et chaussées). Alexander's son Victor Amédée Barbié du Bocage (1832-1890) also became a geographer. On Guillaume's side, his descendents include the Collin du Bocage family, to which belonged the playwright Louis Verneuil (1893-1952), first married to Lysiane Bernhardt, granddaughter of

Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including by Alexandre Dumas fils, ...

, then to Germaine Feydeau, daughter of

Georges Feydeau Georges-Léon-Jules-Marie Feydeau (; 8 December 1862 – 5 June 1921) was a French playwright of the Belle Époque era, remembered for his farces, written between 1886 and 1914. Feydeau was born in Paris to middle-class parents and raised in a ...

(1862-1921). Alexandre's branch married into the Preaulx then la Tullaye families. On 12 February 1792 in Paris, Jean-Denis' sister Marie Julie Barbié du Bocage (1766-1846) married the future print dealer and engraver Jacques-Louis Bance (1761-1847) - their son Balthazar Bance (1804-1862) founded the Librairie centrale d'architecture in 1849 and was father of the painter and engraver Albert Bance (1848-1899).

Publications

* ''Recueil des cartes géographiques, plans, vues et médailles de l'ancienne Grèce, relatifs au voyage du jeune Anacharsis, précédé d'une analyse critique des cartes'', 1788. * ''Analyse de la carte des marches et de l'Empire d'Alexandre Le Grand'', 1804. * ''Dictionnaire géographique critique des lieux mentionnés dans les ouvrages de Salluste'', 1813. * ''Précis de géographie ancienne'', 2 vol., 1827. * ''Description topographique et historique de la plaine d'Argos et d'une partie de l'Argolide'', 1834.

Iconography

* ''Standing Portrait of M. Dubocage'', by Augustin-Désiré Pajou

References

Bibliography (in French)

* Hugues B. Maret, Une lettre de Talleyrand sur l'élection de Denis Barbié du Bocageà l'Institut en 1806, in: Journal des avants, June 1928, p. 238-241 (www.persee.fr) * Jacques-Alphonse Mahul, ''Annuaire nécrologique, ou Supplément annuel et continuation de toutes les biographies ou dictionnaires historiques'', 6e, 1825, Paris : Ponthieu, 1826, pages 13–1

* Philippe François Lasnon de La Renaudière, Philippe de la Renaudière, ''Éloge de M. Barbié du Bocage'', read before the assembly of the

on 1 December 1826. * ''Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de feu M. Barbié du Bocage, précédé d'une notice historique sur sa vie et ses ouvrages'', Paris, 1826. * Louis Verneuil, ''Rideau à neuf heures (Souvenirs de Théâtre)'', Éditions des deux rives, Paris, 1945 * Alexandre Cioranescu, ''Correspondance de Daniel Démétrius Philippidès et de J.-D. Barbié du Bocage (1794-1819)'', Institute for Balkan studies, 1965. * Dominique Lejeune, ''Les sociétés de géographie en France et l'expansion coloniale au XIXeme siecle'', Éditions Albin Michel, 1993. * Institut de France, ''Histoire des cinq académies'', Perrin, 1995. * Frédéric Hitzel, ''Dictionnaire des orientalistes de langue française'', Éditions Karthala, 2008. * Frédéric Barbier, ''Le rêve grec de Monsieur de Choiseul (Les voyages d'un européen des Lumières)'', Armand Colin, 2010. * François Huguet et Boris Noguès, "Les professeurs des facultés de lettres et sciences en France au XIXeme siecle (1808-1880)", June 201

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbie du Bocage, Jean-Denis 1760 births 1825 deaths French geographers category:People from Paris Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Knights of the Legion of Honour category:Deans of the Faculté des lettres de Paris category:Deans of the Sorbonne