Jules Paul Benjamin Delessert

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Jules Paul Benjamin Delessert
Benjamin Delessert's country house, based on a painting by F. Villeneuve from 1832, is located on a plot of land between Rue Basse and Rue Beethoven in Passy

Baron Jules Paul Benjamin Delessert , called Benjamin Delessert, (born February 14, 1773 in Lyon , † March 1, 1847 in Paris ) was a French banker , manufacturer and scientist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is “ Deless. "

Life

Delessert was the son of the banker Étienne Delessert (1735-1816) and came from a Calvinist family in what is now the canton of Vaud in Switzerland . In 1777 he and his family moved from Lyon to Paris, where their father was very successful in trade and industry. Delessert served in the artillery at the beginning of the French Revolution , but had to leave the army after August 10, 1792 as a supporter of La Fayette and in 1795 took over his father's banking business.

In 1801 he set up beet sugar factories in Passy and was appointed a member of the Legion of Honor by Napoléon Bonaparte for his services to the domestic industry and in 1813 he was appointed commander of a legion of the Paris National Guard. After the Restoration he became a member of the Prisons Improvement Commission, but was released after the Bourbons returned for the second time. On his initiative, Livret A was created in 1818 , a form of savings book that still exists in France today. In 1817 he was elected from the Département de la Seine (now Paris ) as a deputy to the Chambre des députés française , where he was a member until 1838. He had his seat in the center-left and was one of the most determined and active members of the free-thinking party.

He had a friend print the work " Icones selectae plantarum " (Par. 1820–39, 5 vols., Each volume with 100 copperplate engravings) at his own expense. He made a great contribution as a chairman of the poor houses in Paris, as a co-founder of the savings banks in France and the " Société philanthropique " as well as through his care for the workers and also through the support of scientific and artistic endeavors and was the owner of a valuable collection of paintings founded by his father ( with Raphael's Madonna : la Vierge de la Maison d'Orléans ) and copper engraving collection , also one of the richest scientific collections, including those of Conchylien .

family

His eldest brother Francois Marie Delessert (1780–1867) was the head of a bank, one of the regents of the Banque de France and a member of the institute.

The second brother, Gabriel Delessert (1786-1858), was a manufacturer in Passy under the Empire, Brigadier General of the Paris National Guard after the July Revolution and from September 6, 1836 to February 24, 1848 Prefect of Police in Paris.

His son Alexandre Henri Edouard (* 1828) accompanied Louis-Félicien-Joseph Caignart de Saulcy on his trip to Palestine in 1850 and reported on it in “ Voyage aux villes maudites ” (1853, 4th edition, 1855). He was one of the founders of the “ Athenaeum français ” and has made a name for himself in other fiction .

Honors

In 1816 he was elected a member of the Académie des Sciences and in 1838 of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . In 1840 Delessert was introduced by Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville as member number 181 of the Société cuviérienne .

After him the plant genera Delesseria J.V. Lamour. and Lessertia DC. named.

Writings and works

  • Recueil de coquilles décrites by Lamarck. 1841 ff.
  • The avantages de la caisse d'épargne et de prévoyance. 1835.
  • with Joseph Marie Degérando : Les bons examples, nouvelle morale en action. 3rd edition, 1867.
  • Guide du bonheur. 1839. (4th edition. 1855)

literature

  • Antoine Lasègue: Musée botanique de M. Benjamin Delessert. DNB 457359706 .
  • JC Cailliez, Y. Finet: Benjamin Delessert (1773-1847) et la malacologie. In: Bulletin de la Société de Conchyliologie. Volume 19, 1997, pp. 1-44.
  • Société Cuvierienne: Nouveaux membres admis dans la Société curvienne . In: Revue Zoologique par La Société Cuvierienne . tape 3 , 1840, p. 32 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).

Web links

Commons : Benjamin Delessert  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter D. Académie des sciences, accessed on November 5, 2019 (French).
  2. ^ Member entry by BJP Benjamin Delessert (with picture) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on November 26, 2015.
  3. ^ Société cuviérienne, p. 32.
  4. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]
personal data
SURNAME Delessert, Jules Paul Benjamin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Delessert, Benjamin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French entrepreneur, banker and scientist
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1773
PLACE OF BIRTH Lyon
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1847
Place of death Paris