Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The Perrey Archive: a story about collecting earthquakes and eruptions

  • Research Paper
  • Published:
Rendiconti Lincei. Scienze Fisiche e Naturali Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Perrey Archive, a unique historical collection of texts and manuscripts on earthquakes and volcanic eruptions of the past, is preserved in the Fondo Sismico of the library of the Società Napoletana di Storia Patria. This collection is the result of the tireless research of French scientist Alexis Perrey (1807–1882), who is regarded as one of the founders of seismology.

The article illustrates what it means to “collect” earthquakes and eruptions, as well as other extreme events and how Perrey built his collection over the course of roughly 40 years, and it describes the role that the catalogs created by Perrey played for historical seismology. Finally, in addition to the value and significance of Perrey’s intellectual enterprise for the history of science, the article discusses the different aspects of archives and archiving for sciences.

Graphical abstract

Photographic composition of some volumes from the Seismic Collection of the Società Napoletana di Storia Patria, photo by Claudio Novelli.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Not applicable.

Notes

  1. “ To live and not work, not to deal with these dear earthquakes, is not to live.” Bibliothèque du Muséum d'Histoire naturelle, lettres d'Alexis Perrey adressées à Jean-Casimir Lemercier, 10 December 1854, (Ms 2675 / 124-135), 135v.

  2. Napoleon wanted to transfer all possible archives to Paris, starting in 1809, to create a kind of archive of civilisations there (Donato 2019).

  3. They are also useful today for dendrochronology, to determine when large paleoearthquakes altered the level of the land (Wald and Scharer).

  4. Light Detection and Ranging: provides material data on an object and its distance.

  5. It provides information related to the grain, texture, and orientation of the crystals and to the phase analysis.

  6. Coordinates: 47.30797559105013, 5.050273126629304. The request to name a street after Perrey came from his nephew Henri Chabeuf, the son of his wife’s sister, whose husband was a notary, also mentioned in the registers of the Dijon Observatory (Chabeuf 1924, 3). Perrey is buried at the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, but not mentioned among the famous residents of that place (Fig 2).

  7. Jean Baptiste Guillaume Joseph Marie Anne Séraphin, Comte de Villèle (1773-1854): ultra-royalist French statesman. Minister of Finances in 1821 and Président du Conseil (Prime Minister) in 1822-28. Unpopular and beaten at the elections of 1827, he resigned in 1828.

  8. With the thesis: Perrey, A. (1838). Théorie du mouvement d'un corps solide autour d'un point fixe. Douillier, Dijon.

  9. For a list of the academies of which he was a member, see Rothé and Godron (1924, 171-172); for a complete list of his publications, see Rothé and Godron (1924, 184).

  10. Note that Guyton de Morveau served as Chancellor of the Academy from 1781 (Bret 2016).

  11. This was the second scientific ascent of Mont Blanc after Horace-Benedict de Saussure’s famous one in 1786 (de Beer and Hey 1955). According to Slatter (1986, 150), Pierre Martel claimed that the summit of Mont Blanc was visible from Dijon. Martins (Martins 1865; 1866) was professor of natural history in Montpellier, director of the local botanical gardens, and corresponding member of the Institut de France. Flag Lieutenant August Bravais was professor of physics at the École polytechnique, a member of the Institut de France, and a former correspondent of Perrey’s (Gasser 1924, 156). August Lepileur was a physician.

  12. Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon, Fonds de l'Observatoire de Dijon, shelf mark : Ms 3782.

  13. Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon, Fonds de l'Observatoire de Dijon, shelf mark : Ms 3782, f. 9r.

  14. Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon, Fonds de l'Observatoire de Dijon, shelf mark : Ms 3782, f. 5v

  15. Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon, Fonds de l'Observatoire de Dijon, shelf mark : Ms 3782, f. 8v.

  16. We know that Perrey took an interest in past earthquakes as early as 1841, but his idea of creating a collection can be traced back to his time at the Observatory. “M. Alexis Perrey, agrégé à la Faculté des Sciences de Dijon, annonce, dans une lettre adressée à M. Arago, qu'il s'occupe de recherches historiques sur les tremblements de terre. À la Lettre est joint un spécimen de ce travail, que l'auteur donne dans le but de provoquer des remarques sur le plan qu'il a suivi et qu'il modifierait au besoin. M. Perrey exprime le regret de n'avoir pas à sa disposition plusieurs grandes collections de chroniques, dans lesquelles il trouverait probablement enregistrés un bon nombre des faits dont il s'occupe. Cependant les sources qu'il a pu constituer jusqu'ici lui ont donné pour 13 siècles (de 306 à 1583) un nombre de 262 tremblements de terre qui, répartis les uns par mois et les autres par saisons, semblent déjà faire pressentir l'existence d'une inégalité dans le degré de fréquence de ces sortes de phénomènes aux différentes époques de l'année.” This is followed by a synoptic table (Perrey 1841).

  17. "Phénomènes observés depuis le 1er Janvier

    Et que j’ai connu par les journaux ou par correspondance particulière

    A partir de ce jour, je change le plan de ce journal.

    Le recto sera seul affecté aux observations que je ferai, le verso sera réservé à la description des phénomènes observés ailleurs et qui parviendront à ma connaissance.

    Pour remplir ce cadre, je réserve ici 6 feuillets pour le 1er trimestre. Le nouveau plan commencera demain le 14 Avril." Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon, Fonds de l'Observatoire de Dijon, shelf mark : Ms 3782, f. 11r.

  18. Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon, Fonds de l'Observatoire de Dijon, shelf mark: Ms 3782, f. 87v.

  19. Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon, Fonds de l'Observatoire de Dijon, shelf mark: Ms 3782, f. 79v. This was the highest magnitude for the entire Tyrrhenian coast (Meletti et al. 2015).

  20. A professor of geology in Pisa from 1841, he died two years after the earthquake while leading the battalion of students from Pisa University in the Battle of Curtatone during the First War of Italian Independence.

  21. Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon, Fonds de l'Observatoire de Dijon, shelf mark: MS 3783, f. 37r.

  22. Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon, Fonds de l'Observatoire de Dijon, shelf mark : MS 3784, f. 6r.

  23. Perrey often cites the German geologist Bernhard von Cotta (1808-1879) as a source of information. Nature, September 15th, 1879, p. 505.

  24. “But in both cases, financial matters have become entangled with matters of science and erudition, since in order to collect observations, Mr Alexis Perrey must engage in correspondence that requires not only significant time, but also more considerable expenses than one would initially expect. Comprehensive research on past centuries in turn requires correspondence, the transportation of documents, and even more or less expensive trips” (“Mais, dans les deux cas, une question financière vient se mêler aux questions de science et d'érudition, car, pour recueillir les observations, M. Alexis Perrey doit entretenir une correspondance qui n'exige pas seulement l'emploi de beaucoup de temps, mais encore des dépenses plus considérables qu'on ne serait tenté de le croire au premier abord. Les recherches relatives aux siècles passés exigeraient elles-mêmes, pour devenir complètes, des correspondances, des transports de documents, et même des voyages plus ou moins dispendieux”). Rapport sur les travaux de M. Alexis Perrey, relatifs aux tremblements de terre de Lioville, Lamé, Elie de Beaumont, Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences, 12 June 1854 : 1046.

  25. Art. 298 (Greffe and Griset 2016, 94).

  26. First Professor of Geology at the University of Zurich and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). Alexis Perrey to Arnold Escher von der Linth, Dijon, 13.12.1845. ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Hs 4:1382 https://doi.org/10.7891/e-manuscripta-9043

  27. Belgian astronomer Adolphe-Jacques-Lambert Quételet, director of the Royal Observatory in Brussels from 1828 until his death, perpetual secretary of the Belgian Academy of Sciences from 1834 (Galvani 1935). Quételet launched a kind of permanent enquiry into remarkable atmospheric and geophysical phenomena observed on the globe, which would appear to have inspired Perrey (Lancaster 1902, 452). On Perrey’s indebtedness to Quételet, see Davison (1927: 47-48).

  28. “j’attribue cette pénurie des faites au manque de sources où j’aurais pu puiser”. Perrey to Escher von der Linth, Dijon, 13.12.1845. ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Hs 4:1382 https://doi.org/10.7891/e-manuscripta-9043 f. 1v.

  29. « entreprise au-dessus de mes forces.” Biblioteca Moreniana, Carte Libri 35, Perrey to Libri, Dijon, February 1858, cc. 1r-2r: c. 2r.

  30. Bruto Icilio Giuda Taddeo Libri Carrucci della Sommaja, Count of Bagnano, better known as Guglielmo Libri, a complex and controversial figure (Del Centina and Fiocca 2004, 3).

  31. Let us think of the famous “Parisian manuscript” by the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel, a manuscript later rediscovered in the Biblioteca Moreniana in 1952 (Del Centina and Fiocca 2004, XV). Libri was a real hunter of manuscripts on the history of science (Del Centina and Fiocca 2004, 14), which he absolutely adored (Del Centina and Fiocca 2004, 13, note 20).

  32. He was tried in absentia and sentenced to ten years imprisonment on 22 July 1850 for the embezzlement of French books and manuscripts, but fled to London (Del Centina and Fiocca 2004, 18).

  33. (“[l]’historien doit toujours faire connaître ce que les sciences ont reçu de la société et ce qu'elles lui ont donné”: Libri 1838, I, XIII; Giacardi 2005).

  34. Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques des départements (Paris 1849).

  35. “[d]ans une ville de province et loin des grandes centres scientifiques.” Biblioteca Moreniana, Carte Libri 35, Perrey to Libri, Dijon, February 1858, f. 1r.

  36. “pourrait rendre un jour quelque service à la Science.” Biblioteca Moreniana, Carte Libri 35, Perrey to Libri, Dijon February 1858, f. 1r.

  37. A French geographer specialising in thematic maps, he advanced the idea that physical knowledge of the globe should begin with the mountains; hence the considerable importance of his work for Perrey’s purposes (Broc Numa 1971, 225; Kish and Buache 1976).

  38. Lorient, Rue du port 78. Perrey’s daughter was born in December 1839 and died in 1918. In 1865 she married Paul Godron, a marine engineer who died in 1906. When their son-in-law was transferred to Paris as Inspector General, Mr and Mrs Perrey followed him. There their 13-year-old granddaughter died, followed soon after by Perrey himself (Chabeuf 1924, 3).

  39. I am referring to the third one, published in 1865 and later as an excerpt.

References

  • Antonetti G (2007) Villèle (Jean-Baptiste-Guillaume-Marianne-Séraphin-Joseph de). Les ministres des Finances de la Révolution française au Second Empire (II): Dictionnaire biographique 1814–1848 [online]. Institut de la gestion publique et du développement économique, Vincennes

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Barbante C (2022) Scritto nel ghiaccio Viaggio nel clima che cambia. Il Mulino, Bologna

    Google Scholar 

  • Barbier P (1999) Des polytechniciens en Egypte, Pierre Jacotot (1756–1821). Bull de la SABIX 20:17–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bidault de L’Isle G (1928) L’Observatoire de Dijon et son Telescope d’Herschel. L’Astronomie 42:153–156

    Google Scholar 

  • Boffito G (1927) Corriere aeronautico internazionale: Servizio dell’aria. La Bibliofilía 29(3/4):131–144

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowker GC (2005) Memory Practices in the Sciences. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Bret P (2011) La fabrique historique des archives scientifiques, entre savants et institutions: papiers privés et fonds propres à l’Académie des sciences. In: Genet J-P, Ruggiu F-G (eds) Du papier à l’archive, du privé au public: France et îles Britanniques, deux mémoires. Éditions de la Sorbonne, Paris, p 159

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bret P (2016) Guyton de Morveau, la Révolution avec bonhomie? Ann historiques de la Révolut française 383:23–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Bret P, Demeulenaere-Douyère C, Hilaire-Pérez L (eds) (2000) Des matériaux pour l’histoire. Archives et collections scientifiques et techniques du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours. Éd. de l’ENS-SFHST, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Broc N (1971) Un géographe dans son siècle, Philippe Buache (1700–1773). Dix-huitième Siècle 3:223–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bru T (2017) La collection éclatée. Artefact 6(1):157–176

    Google Scholar 

  • Centina Del, a, Fiocca A, (2004) L’archivio di Guglielmo Libri dalla sua dispersione ai fondi della Biblioteca Moreniana. In: Adini G, Tanganelli ML, Leo S (eds) Il Catalogo del Fondo Carte Libri. Olschki, Firenze

    Google Scholar 

  • Chabeuf H (1924) Le Bien public: Union bourguignonne (Dijon) 1924-12-06

  • Chermette A (1983) Joseph-Jean-Baptiste Fournet (1801–1869). Bull mensuel de la Société linnéenne de Lyon 8:1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Daston L (2017) Introduction: Third Nature. Science in the Archives. Pasts, Presents, Futures. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 1–15

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • De Beer G, Hey M (1955) The first ascent of Mont Blanc. Notes Rec R Soc London 11(2):236–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Ceglie R, Guerra C (forthcoming) La Storia naturale come metodo. In: Maglio A, Vitolo P (eds) Robert Willis e la riscoperta del Gotico napoletano. LetteraVentidue Edizioniù, Siracusa

  • Donato MP (2019) L’archivio del mondo. Quando Napoleone confiscò la storia, Laterza, Roma

    Google Scholar 

  • Galvani L (1935) Adolphe-Jacques-Lambert Quételet. In: Enciclopedia Italiana. Treccani, Roma

    Google Scholar 

  • Gasser MA (1924) Essai historique sur l’Astronomie en Bourgogne. Mémoires de l’Academie des sciences, arts et belles-lettres de Dijon 5:89–167

    Google Scholar 

  • Giacardi L (2005) Guglielmo Libri. In Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani 65

  • Greffe F, Griset P (2016) Une compagnie en son siècle. 350 ans de l’Académie des sciences. Cherche-Midi, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Huguet F, Noguès B (2011) Les professeurs des facultés des lettres et des sciences en France au XIXe siècle (1808-1880). http://facultes19.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/ Accessed 28 August 2023

  • Ishimura D, Iwasa Y, Takahashi N, Tadokoro R, Oda R (2022) Paleoseismic events and shallow subsurface structure of the central part of the Futagawa fault, which generated the Kumamoto earthquake. Geomorphology 414:108387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2022.108387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kish G, Buache P (1976) Early Thematic Mapping: The Work of Philippe Buache. Imago Mundi 28:129–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster A (1902) Proposition d’enquête scientifique relative à l’ensemble des phénomènes géophysiques de l’années Revue climatologique mensuelle. Ciel et Terre 23:449–464

    Google Scholar 

  • Libri G (1838-1841) Histoire des sciences mathématiques en Italie, depuis la renaissance des lettres jusqu'à la fin du XVIIe siècle. Jules Renouard et Cie, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Martins C (1865) Deux ascensions au Mont-Blanc, études de météorologie et d’histoire naturelle. Revue des Deux Mondes 56

  • Martins C F (1866) Ascension de messieurs Charles Martins, Bravais et Lepileur (1844). In Du Spitzberg au Sahara : étapes d'un naturaliste au Spitzberg, en Laponie, en Écosse, en Suisse, en France, en Italie, en Orient, en Egypte et en Algérie. J. B. Baillière, Paris

  • Meletti C, Castelli V, Bernardini F (eds) (2015) Il terremoto del 14 agosto 1846 di Orciano Pisano, in Terremoti nella storia. Terremoti prima del ‘900 https://ingvterremoti.com/2015/08/14/i-terremoti-nella-storia-il-terremoto-del-14-agosto-1846-di-orciano-pisano/ Accessed 23 September 2023

  • Oreskes N, Le Grand H (2001) Plate tectonics: an insider’s history of the modern theory of the Earth. Westview press, Boulder

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennacchioni G (2023) I fossili di terremoti e la meccanica delle faglie profonde, Conference on April 21st, at the Classe di scienze fisiche, matematiche e naturali, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei

  • Perrey A (1838) Théorie du mouvement d'un corps solide autour d'un point fixe. Douillier, Dijon Perrey A (1841) Tremblements de terre dans les différents siècles et aux différentes époques de l'année. Comptes Rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences 12. Rubrique Physique du globe : 1185–1186.

  • Perrey A (1854) Circulaire relative à l'observation des tremblements de terre adressée à tous les voyageurs. Extrait du Bulletin de la société de géographie. L. Martinet, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrey A (1855) Bibliographie séismique. Mém. Acad. Dijon, IV 1855:183–253

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrey A (1861) Bibliographie séismique. Mém. Acad. Dijon, IX 1861:87–192

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrey A (1864) Theory of Earthquakes. Am J Sci Arts 37(109):2–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrey A (1865) Bibliographie séismique. Mém. Acad. Dijon, XIII 1865:35–102

    Google Scholar 

  • Pilbeam P (1983) The ‘Three Glorious Days’: The Revolution of 1830. Prov France. The Hist J 26(4):831–844

    Google Scholar 

  • Rappaport R (1997) When geologists where historians. Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Reid HF (1910) The mechanism of the earthquake. The California Earthquake of April 19, 1906, Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission, 2. Carnegie Institution, Washington DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Rémy F (2017) Joseph Fournet, géologue et météophile. Histoires de météophiles. Hermann, Paris, pp 143–156

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothé E, Godron H (1924) Alexis Perrey, professeur à la Faculté des sciences de Dijon, sismologue français, 1807–1882. Mémoires de l’Académie des sciences, arts et belles-lettres de Dijon 5:169–256

    Google Scholar 

  • Scambelluri M, Pennacchioni G, Gilio M et al (2017) Fossil intermediate-depth earthquakes in subducting slabs linked to differential stress release. Nat Geosci 10:960–966. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-017-0010-7

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sepkoski D (2017) The Earth as Archive: Contingency, Narrative, and the History of Life. Science in the Archives. Pasts, Presents, Futures. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 53–83

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Slatter EM (1986) In Commemoration of the Bi-Centenary of the First Successful Ascent of Mont Blanc. Alpine J 8:150–159

    Google Scholar 

  • Steedman C (2002) Dust: the archive and cultural history. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, N.J

    Google Scholar 

  • Venezia A (2015) Ricordi di una capitale. Istituto Lombardo di Storia Contemporanea, PreText 3:134–141

    Google Scholar 

  • Wald L and Scharer K Introduction to Paleoseismology. U.S. Geological Survey https://www.usgs.gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/introduction-paleoseismology Accessed 15 Oct 2023

Manuscripts and Archival Documents

  • Bibliothèque du Muséum d'Histoire naturelle, lettres d'Alexis Perrey adressées à JeanCasimir Lemercier, 10 December 1854, (Ms 2675 / 124–135)

  • Biblioteca Moreniana, Carte Libri 35, Perrey to Libri, Dijon, February 1858

  • Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon, Fonds de l'Observatoire de Dijon, shelf mark : Ms 3782–3786

  • ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Hs 4:1382 https://doi.org/10.7891/e-manuscripta-9043 Alexis Perrey to Arnold Escher von der Linth, Dijon, 13.12.1845

Download references

Acknowledgments

The archival research that the author conducted in Naples for this paper was funded by the ERC project Early Modern Cosmology (Horizon 2020, GA 725883). The author also wishes to thank the Max Planck Partner Group The Water City (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, in collaboration with Ca’ Foscari University of Venice). The author is most grateful to the Rendiconti Lincei, and above to its editor-in-chief, Vincenzo Aquilanti, and the two referees, for dedicating special attention to the importance of historical seismological collections such as Perrey's in these days of great tension for the seismic swarm in the Phlegraean Fields. She also thanks Francesco Senatore for organising the conference and exhibition “Storici al lavoro. Zibaldoni, repertori, appunti, schede e altri strumenti della ricerca storica (secoli XIX-XX)” in November 2022, as this afforded her the opportunity to resume the research on Alexis Perrey she had begun in 2014. She also wishes to thank the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei for honouring her with an invitation, as this allowed her to put her research into written form. Finally, a note of deep gratitude to Paola Milone of the Library of the Società Napoletana di Storia Patria, for her uninterrupted assistance over the years when the author was in Naples, but especially when she was away, and to the Society’s President Renata De Lorenzo, for having “entrusted” her with Perrey and his story.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy

    Corinna Guerra

Authors
  1. Corinna Guerra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Corinna Guerra.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Guerra, C. The Perrey Archive: a story about collecting earthquakes and eruptions. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 34, 1115–1126 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-023-01205-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-023-01205-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation