Auguste Le Prévost

Auguste Le Prévost (3 June 1787 in Bernay, Eure – 14 July 1859 in La Vaupalière) was a French geologist, philologist, archaeologist and historian. While studying classics and law, Le Prevost developed a passion for history and archeology. To further it, he learned, besides Latin and Greek, English, Italian, German, Swedish, Hebrew and Sanskrit. His encyclopedic knowledge, the critical and rigorous method he applied to his research, were clearly an innovation in his time. As an historian, Le Prevost pioneered, along with his friend Arcisse de Caumont, research on the Romanesque and Gothic architecture in Normandy and France. In 1824, he cofounded with de Caumont, Charles de Gerville and Father Gervais de La Rue, the Société des Antiquaires de Normandie, a veritable "school in motion of specialists of architecture". He was elected a member of the Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Rouen in 1813, and chaired, on various occasions, the learned societies of Seine-Inférieure and Eure. He was elected a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1838. Le Prévost, who was fascinated by the History of Normandy, published the five volumes of the Norman chronicler Orderic Vitalis' work. He showed his versatility by authoring, among many scientific papers, a Discours sur la poésie romantique in 1825. In 1830, he published two sets of detailed notes on the important discovery of "the treasure of Berthouville", a fabulous collection of Gallo-Roman silverware listed today among the most valuable pieces medal cabinet of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. He is responsible for the restoration of the Parlement de Normandie in Rouen and conservation of Roman theater of Lillebonne. He began a political career with his election as general counselor in Bernay in 1831, then as deputy in 1834. He was consistently re-elected until the Orleans family fell from power after the French Revolution of 1848. he did not oppose the republic, but said humorously, "The Republic and I greet one another, but we do not talk.