DELISLE, L OPOLD VICTOR (1826 )

This article appears in Volume V07, Page 964 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: DAH-DEM

DELISLE, L OPOLD VICTOR (1826 ) , French bibliophile and historian, was born at Valognes (Manche) on the 24th of October 1826. At the Ecole des Chartes, where his career was remarkably brilliant, his valedictory thesis was an Essai sur les revenus publics en Normandie au XIIe siecle (1849), and it was to the history of his native province that he devoted his early works. Of these the Etudes sur la condition de la dasse agricole et Petal de l'agriculture en Normandie au moyen age (1851), condensing an enormous mass of facts

drawn

DRAWN

from the local archives, was reprinted in 1905 without change, and remains authoritative. In November 1852 he entered the manuscript department of the Bibliotheque Imperiale (Nationale), of which in 1874 he became the official head in succession to Jules Taschereau. He was already known as the compiler of several invaluable inventories of its manuscripts. When the French government decided on printing a general catalogue of the printed books in the Bibliotheque, Delisle became responsible for this great undertaking and took an active part in the work; in the preface to the first volume (1897) he gave a detailed history of the library and its management. Under his administration the library was enriched with numerous gifts, legacies and acquisitions, notably by the purchase of a part of the Ashburnham MSS. Delisle proved that the bulk of the MSS. of French origin which Lord Ashburnham had bought in France, particularly those bought from the book-seller Barrois, had been purloined by Count Libri, inspector-general of libraries under King Louis Philippe, and he procured the repurchase of the MSS. for the library, afterwards preparing a catalogue of them entitled Catalogue des MSS. des fonds Libri et Barrois (1888), the preface of which gives the history of the whole transaction. He was elected member of the Academic des

Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

et Belles Lettres in 1859, and became a member of the staff of the Recueil des historiens de la France, collaborating in vols. xxii. (1865) and xxiii. (1876) and editing vol. xxiv. (1904), which is valuable for the social history of France in the 13th century. The

jubilee

JUBILEE (or JUBILE), YEAR OF

of his fifty years' association with the Bibliotheque Nationale was celebrated on the 8th of March 1903. After his retirement (February 21, 1905) he brought out in two volumes a catalogue and description of the printed books and MSS. in the Musee

Conde

Chantilly

CHANTILLY

, left by the duc d'Aumale to the French Institute. He produced many valuable official reports and catalogues and a great number of memoirs and mono-graphs on points connected with palaeography and the study of history and archaeology (see his Melanges de paleographie et debibliographie (188o) with atlas; and his articles in the Album paleographique (1887). Of his purely historical works

special

SPECIAL

mention must be made of his Memoire sur les actes d'Innocent Ill (1857), and his Memoire sur les operations financieres des

Tern

TERN (Norsk taerne, tende or tende; Swedish tarna; Dutch Stern1)

pliers (1889), a collection of documents of the highest value for economic history. The thirty-second volume of the Histoire litteraire de la France, which was partly his work, is ;:if great importance for the study of 13th and 14th century Latin chronicles. Delisle was undoubtedly the most learned man in Europe with regard to the middle ages; and his knowledge of diplomatics, palaeography and printing was profound. His output of work, in catalogues, &c., was enormous, and his services to the Bibliotheque Nationale in this respect cannot be overestimated. His wife, a daughter of

Eugene

EUGENE

Burnouf, was for many years his collaborator.
The Bibliographie des travaux de L.Delisle (1902), by Paul Lacombe, may be consulted for a full

list

LIST (O.E.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
, a Teutonic word, cf. Dut. lust, Ger. Leiste, adapted in Ital. lista and Fr.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
)
LIST, FRIEDRICH (1789-1846)

of his numerous works.

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