Joachime Barrande

1799–1883 

The world-famous palaeontologist Joachim Barrande is inextricably linked to the Czech lands through his work. He worked his whole life outside institutions – a lone scientist – yet he corresponded and met with the main movers of the emerging new science of geology. His extensive work, written in French drew admiration. He found his first fossilised trilobites in Prague; later he described thousands of species of mainly Proterozoic fauna. 

 

Barrande came to the Czech lands as a tutor to Prince Henri de Chambord – grandson of French king Charles X. who was expulsed from France during the revolution in July 1830. The young Barrande, graduate of a polytechnic school and therefore a civil engineer by education, followed him into exile, first to Scotland, then to Bohemia. It has been written, that it was even then, that he became familiar with the Silurian fossils which he later recognized in Bohemia and became famous for describing them. There is no indication of this as Barrande only started to collect trilobites in Bohemia and he contacted the Scottish researcher R. Murchison (nicknamed “King of Siluria”) many years later. 

Barrande was dismissed from the royal service soon after his arrival in Prague, but ended up spending the rest of his life here; a full 50 years. Henri never ascended the throne and he moved to Frohsdorf near Vienna. Barrande later became the administrator of his estate.This employment enabled him to secure funding for the research he conducted throughout his life as a private researcher.

After leaving the French exile court, Barrande was invited to work as civil engineer on preparing the project to extend the Lány horse-drawn railway to Radnice andPlzeň. The Lány railway (a project among whose shareholders was the president of the Society for the Museum of Bohemia, Count Caspar Sternberg)then ended in the Lány game preserve. The railway extension never took place, but it did get Barrande to Skryje, where he discovered many trilobite fossils. Zlíchov in Prague however, is the place where he found his first fossils. 

Barrande gradually systematized his collections, and from a mere “collector” he grew to be a scientist who produced the most precise comprehensive work ever made by one person. HisSystème silurien du centre de la Bohême (Silurian System of Central Bohemia, 1852─1881) consists oftwenty-twovolumesin which he describes over 3 500 species of prehistoric, mostly Proterozoic, fauna and it includes 1 160 large lithographs of fossils.

In the autumn of 1883, Barrande`s former pupil and later employer Count Henri de Chambord fell seriously ill. Immediately after receiving the news, Barrande left by train for Frohsdorf near Vienna, where he found the Count on his deathbed. His task was then to settle Chambord`s will and arrange the funeral. Barrande waseighty-four years old at the time. General physical exhaustion and the following cold resulted in his death on 5 October just a few days after Henri`s funeral. He is buried in the near Lanzenkirchen, far from Prague and Paris, where he probably belonged more. He bequeathed his extensive collection to the Patriotic (later National) Museum. Antonín Frič was the most instrumental in the taking over of the collection and he organized the completion and posthumous publication of Barrande`s work. He was helped in this endeavour by Otomar Novák (virtually the only Barrande`s personal student) and by professors J. Waagen and J. J. Jahn. Barrande`s collection is part of the National Museum in Prague.  

 

 

References

Horný, R., Turek, V.: Joachim Barrande (1799–1893), Život, dílo a odkaz světové paleontologii. Národní muzeum, přírodovědecké muzeum, Praha 1999, 56 pp.

Marek, J., Šarič, R., Kácha, P.: Joachim Barrande, Říkali mu jemnostpán – People called him gentle man, Česká geologická služba, Praha 2013, 66 pp.

Kříž, J.: Joachim Barrande. Český geologický ústav, Praha 1999.

Svoboda, J., Prantl, F.: Barrandien. Geologie středočeského siluru a devonu v obrazech. ČSAV, Praha 1958, s. 33─54.

Chlupáč, I. (eds.): Paleozoikum Barrandienu. Český geologický ústav, Praha 1992.

 

 

 

 

 

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