Antoine-Grimald Monnet

Antoine-Grimald Monnet (* 1734 in Champeix , † May 23, 1817 in Paris ) was a French geologist and inspector general of mining in France. With Jean-Étienne Guettard , he created the first geological map of France in the form of an atlas of mineral deposits.

Monnet came from a modest background and trained as a pharmacist in Paris (and Nantes), teaching himself chemistry mainly on his own. He found respected sponsors (including the son of Chrétien-Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes ), gave chemistry courses and lectured on the composition of mineral springs at the Academy of Sciences (published in 1768). He was sent to Germany to study mining there in 1770. After his return he published a free translation of the book about mineralogy by Axel Frederic Cronstedt and he published a book about mining, which was mainly compiled from German sources (including the Berggrat der Bergbaustadt Freiberg), but also contained some of his own observations. In 1776 he became General Inspector of Mining. This was a newly created title, before there were only commissioners who were paid by the Treasury. He was commissioned to continue the work of Jean-Étienne Guettard (and Antoine Lavoisier ) on the mineral deposits in France and their mapping and toured all of France. The resulting Atlas minéralogique de la France appeared from 1780. A year earlier in 1779 he published a new system of mineralogy. After the revolution he was again an inspector in the Corps des Mines until his retirement in 1802 and helped with the reorganization.

His geological work in continuation of that of Guettard was criticized among others by Lavoisier, who accused him of a lack of understanding of basic geological facts (such as continuity in the stratification) and appropriation of Lavoisier's achievements and those of Guettard. In chemistry, too, he was still one of the last adherents of the phlogiston theory, which Lavoisier had long since disproved, and in mineralogy, too, he lacked understanding of the new ideas of René-Just Haüy , against which he argued. Here he did the same with Balthazar Georges Sage (1740-1824), the first director of the École des Mines from 1783 to 1790, who also enjoyed a dubious reputation as a scientist, but had administrative skills.

He left numerous manuscripts behind at the École des Mines, but his work as a scientist takes a back seat to that of conveying the mining knowledge gained in France, especially in Germany and Scandinavia. Other mining experts who brought foreign knowledge to France were Gabriel Jars and Jean-Pierre-François Guillot-Duhamel (1730–1816), who also traveled to Germany.

He was a member of various foreign academies, for example in Stockholm and Turin.

Web links

• Annales des Mines