LEBER, JEAN MICHEL CONSTANT (178o-1859)

This article appears in Volume V16, Page 350 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: LAP-LEO

LEBER, JEAN MICHEL CONSTANT (178o-1859) , French historian and bibliophile, was born at Orleans on the 8th of May 1780. His first

work

WORK

was a poem on Joan of Arc (1804); but he wrote at the same time a Grammaire general synthetique, which attracted the attention of J. M. de Gerando, then secretary-general to the ministry of the interior. The latter found him a

minor

post in his department, which left him leisure for his historical

work

WORK

. He even took him to Italy when

Napoleon

NAPOLEON

was trying to organize, after French models, the Roman states which he had taken from the

pope

in 1809. Leber however did not stay there long, for he considered the attacks on the temporal property of the Holy See to be sacrilegious. On his return to Paris he resumed his administrative work, literary recreations and historical researches. While spending a part of his time writing vaudevilles and comic operas, he began to collect old essays and rare pamphlets by old French historians. His office was preserved to him by the Restoration, and Leber put his literary gifts at the service of the government. When the question of the coronation of Louis XVIII. arose, he wrote, as an answer to Volney, a minute treatise on the Ceremonies du sacre, which was published at the time of the coronation of Charles X. To-wards the end of

Villele

VILLELE, JEAN BAPTISTE GUILLAUME MARIE ANNE SERAPHIN, COMTE DE (1773–1854)

's ministry, when there was a

movement

MOVEMENT

of public

opinion

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

in favour of extending municipal liberties, he undertook the defence of the threatened system of centralization, and composed, in answer to Raynouard, an Histoire critique du pouvoir municipal depuis l'origine de la monarchie jusqu'd nos jours (1828). He also wrote a treatise entitled De l'etat reel de la presse et des pamphlets depuis Francois Pr jusqu'd Louis XIV (1834), in which he refuted an empty paradox of Charles Nodier, who had tried to prove that the press had never been, and could never be, so free as under the Grand Monarch. A few years later, Leber retired (1839), and sold to the library of Rouen the rich collection of books which he had amassed during thirty years of research. The catalogue he made himself (4 vols., 1839 to 1852). In 184o he read at the Academic des

Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

et Belles-Lettres two dissertations, an " Essai sur 1'appreciation de la fortune privee au moyen age," followed by an " Examen critique des tables de prix du marc d'argent depuis 1'epoque de Saint Louis "; these essays were included by the

Academy

ACADEMY, GREEK
ACADEMY, ROYAL

in its Recueil de memoires presentes par divers savants (vol. i., 1844), and were also revised and published by Leber (1847). They form his most considerable work, and assure him a position of eminence in the economic history of France. He also rendered good service to historians by the publication of his Collection des meilleures dissertations, notices et traites relatifs d l'histoire de France (20 vols., 1826184o); in the absence of
an index, since Leber did not give one, an analytical table ofcontents is to be found in Alfred Franklin's Sources de l'histoire de France (1876, pp. 342 sqq.). In consequence of the revolution of 1848, Leber decided to leave Paris. He retired to his native town, and spent his last years in collecting old engravings. He died at Orleans on the 22nd of December 1859.
In 1832 he had been elected as a member of the Societe des Antiquaires de France, and in the Bulletin of this society (vol. i., 186o) is to be found the most correct and detailed account of his life's works.

End of Article: LEBER, JEAN MICHEL CONSTANT (178o-1859)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/LAP_LEO/LEBER_JEAN_MICHEL_CONSTANT_178.html">
LEBER, JEAN MICHEL CONSTANT (178o-1859)
</a>

(Previous)
LEBEL, JEAN (d. 1370)

(Next)
LEBEUF, EDMOND (1809-1888)

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email