Philippe-Isidore Picot de Lapeyrouse

Bust of Lapeyrouse

Baron (de Bazus) Philippe-Isidore Picot de Lapeyrouse , also simply Philippe Picot de Lapreyrouse , also de la Peyrouse and de Lapeirouse and de la Peirouse , (born October 20, 1744 in Toulouse , † October 18, 1818 at Lapeyrouse Castle ) was a French naturalist (geology, mineralogy, ornithology, botany, zoology, paleontology). Its official botanical author abbreviation is “ Lapeyr. “He is the founder of the Toulouse Museum .

Live and act

He came from a family of the postal aristocracy, the ancestors were merchants. His father Jacques Picot de Buissaison de Lapreyrouse was a lawyer at the Parliament of Toulouse. Several of his brothers were in the military, some in high positions.

Philippe de Lapeyrouse, however, embarked on an administrative career and became an advocate in the management of water and forests of the Parliament of Toulouse as a mine inspector. After the death of one of his uncles, he received the title and inheritance of Lapeyrouse Castle in 1775. Since he also married richly in 1772, he was able to give up his administrative post and devote himself entirely to the natural sciences, but returned to the administration in 1790 as president of the Toulouse district. He was arrested in 1793 and only released after the fall of Robespierre . In 1794 he became mine inspector of the Republic of France. He became professor of natural history in Toulouse (from 1796 at the École Centrale, from 1811 at the Faculté des Sciences, whose dean he was at the same time) and at times also at the École des Mines . 1800 to 1806 he was mayor of Toulouse.

Picot de Lapeyrouse published books on the flora of the Pyrenees and studied minerals and birds of the area.

In 1797 he tried with his friend, the geologist and botanist Louis Ramond de Carbonnières (1755-1827), and a group of scientists to climb the 3355 m high Mont Perdu to a controversy about the age of the limestone in the Pyrenees with Déodat Gratet de To clarify Dolomieu . He did not reach the summit, but published a report on this expedition. He also devoted himself to farming on his property and introduced merino sheep there.

In 1782 he became a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and from 1780 a corresponding member of the Académie des sciences and a member of the Academy of Toulouse.

In 1808 he was made a baron by Napoleon and became a member of the Legion of Honor. He founded the Natural History Museum in Toulouse. He was an active Freemason who (influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau ) also founded a lodge.

His son Isidore Picot de Lapeyrouse (1776-1835) was his successor as professor of natural history in Toulouse, which he headed during his time as mayor as well as the Botanical Garden of Toulouse.

Honors

The genus of the iris family Lapeyrousia Pourr. is named in his honor.

Fonts

Mémoires d'histoire naturelle: Description de quelques crystallizations. Histoire naturelle du Lagopède. Description de quelques plantes des Pyrénées, 1774–1778
Description de plusieurs nouvelles espèces d'orthocératites et d'ostracites, 1781
Traité des mines et forges à fer du comté de Foix 1786
Mémoire sur la mortalité des ormes dans les environs de Toulouse, 1787
De l'administration diocésaine en Languedoc, pour servir d'instruction aux députés de cette province aux États-Généraux 1789
Histoire des plantes des Pyrénées 1791
Figures de la flore des Pyrénées, avec des descriptions, 1795 to 1801 (unfinished)
Voyage au Mont-Perdu et dans la partie adjacente des Hautes-Pyrénées 1797
Tables méthodiques des mammifères et des oiseaux observés dans le département de la Haute-Garonne, 1799
Flore des Pyrénées, Toulouse 1801
Histoire abrégée des plantes des Pyrénées et Itinéraire des botanistes dans ces montagnes, 1813
Dictionnaire des oiseaux
Considérations sur les lycées, surtout par rapport aux départements, Imprimé par le Conseil général de la Haute-Garonne et envoyé aux députés 1815
Supplément à l'Histoire abrégée des plantes des Pyrénées, 1818
Extraits de sa correspondance avec D. Villars, 1861

Web links

biography

References and comments

^ ^A ^b C. C. Leonhard , JH Kopp , CL Gaertner : Introduction and preparation for mineralogy. First part, Hartmann, 1817, p. 299.
↑ The occasion arose as early as 1771, when an administrative reform was carried out, which he did not approve.
↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]

personal data
SURNAME	Lapeyrouse, Philippe-Isidore Picot de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French geologist and naturalist
DATE OF BIRTH	October 20, 1744
PLACE OF BIRTH	Toulouse
DATE OF DEATH	October 18, 1818
Place of death	Lapeyrouse fossat

[Leonh-1] A ^b C. C. Leonhard , JH Kopp , CL Gaertner : Introduction and preparation for mineralogy. First part, Hartmann, 1817, p. 299.

[2] The occasion arose as early as 1771, when an administrative reform was carried out, which he did not approve.

[Burkhardt2018-3] Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]