| Activity | Barrande studied at the Stanislav's lycée in Paris after which, during the years 1819 - 1824, he continued with his studies with two-years at the "École polytechnique" (where he was the most successful graduate of the year) and two years at the "École des ponts et chassées". After his studies Barrande worked for several years as a civil engineer in Bordeaux and Saumur where to this day the quality of his work may be seen as the massive bridge across the Loire River. Barrande was appointed by King Charles X, King of France, as the tutor to his grandson, the heir Prince Henry Count Chambord. It appeared that Barrande would take
Barrande ended in 1833 his part in the education of the thirteen year old Prince Count Henry. Barrande shortly returned in 1834 to his former occupation. He was employed through Count Kaspar Sternberk to examine the project of the railroad extension from Lány to Plzen through the coal basins near Radnice.
The Paleozoic fossils had been already shown to Barrande in Scotland by the renowned Roderic Murchison in 1831. Fossils found in the vicinity of Prague deposited in the Czech Museum and those which Barrande found himself during 1833, made it possible for Barrande to comprehend that the fossils from the Bohemian transitional strata, described by professor Zippe, were similar but differed from those found in Scotland and England by Murchison. Above all Barrande very soon realised that the Bohemian fossil localities were among the World's best. While reading Murchison's first results from the Lower Paleozoic rocks and fossils sometime between 1831 - 1834 in the "Proceedings of the Geological Society, London, and especially in 1839, when Murchison published his "Silurian System", Barrande seriously decided to study the same "Silurian System" in Bohemia. Besides collecting fossils he also became interested in the rocks from which the fossils came. During the period 1840 - 1848 Barrande travelled on foot through central Bohemia, recognised its geology and discovered a number of new fossil localities. In his detailed notes from 1841 - 1882 we have the best documents available on this period of his work.
Barrande's notebooks represent a superb example also for contemporary geologists. Barrande described fossil localities in them, drew geological sections and measured the dip and direction of the rocks. He correlated sections and systematically covered the area of central Bohemia, especially between Prague and Beroun. He was searching for fossil localities and he made detailed notes on everything of interest to him. It is possible to find in his notes data on the amateur collectors and about all the people who gave him interesting information and who helped him. The names of hundreds of nowadays unknown people are noted as are also the names of famous geologists with whom Barrande went on field trips to the Bohemian and Moravian Paleozoic.
The classic cross-section through the formations of the Prague Basin occurred in his notebook for June 13th, 1844 in connection with Barrande's field trip to Beroun. Barrande quickly realised that the "Silurian" formations formed a giant bowl, basin or syncline, between Prague and Beroun and that on the surface they were parallelly exposed in stripes of which the oldest formed the margins of the bowl and the youngest were in its centre. He also realised that each formation contained a slightly different association of fossils. Barrande was also helped by experienced geologists. For example Barrande went in 1843 together with Murchison and Zippe on a field trip to the vicinity of Praha - Dvorce, Malá Chuchle, Hlubocepy and Slivenec. During the field trip Murchison ensured Barrande that the formations they had seen were true Silurian. Between June 20th and 25th, 1847 Barrande visited sections in the vicinity of Beroun and Konprusy together with Murchison and de Verneuil. They also visited the locality of Vápenice near Hyskov, where lime was produced from the tectonic block of the Devonian limestones within the older rocks. They visited also the vicinity of Jince together with the mining councillor Grimm from Priíbram.
Barrande became devoted to his interest in the Bohemian Paleozoic during a time when in other parts of the World the development of natural sciences was just starting, during a time when amateur naturalists collected data for later synthesis. Barrande, who was in reality a technician, respected precision and facts. He started to collect and classify fossils but he never regarded them to be sufficient to change the traditional views of nature.
Barrande was literally living and intensively working in the middle of his huge fossil collection in the quiet provincial Prague of the nineteenth Century. In Bohemia he was only a member of the Bohemian Royal Museum Society and since the establishment of the Emperor's Academy of Sciences in Vienna its corresponding member.
Barrande devoted an incredible effort and resources to purchasing fossils. He had good contacts with many quarry workers who were putting away for him the fossils they found during the hand breaking of limestone blocks. Workers, trained by Barrande, were digging extensive collecting pits, following layers rich in fossils. Many of these pits are preserved to this day. According to the British geologist J. E. Marr who personally visited Barrande on September 18th, 1879, there existed just in the vicinity of Koneprusy near Beroun more than 100 little quarries operating for Barrande for several years. When Barrande studied the ontogenetic development of the trilobite Aulacopleura konincki, he had about 6 000 complete exoskeletons available from the pits on the Cernidla Hill near Lodenice. He needed to obtain similar series of the individuals of the trilobite Sao hirsuta and for this he employed 3 - 4 workers for many years in Skryje. At the pits the collecting was carried out for some years, all through the year, even in winter when workers were protected by wooden shelters. Barrande first paid his workmen weekly, later on by piece according to the rarity of the fossil. Barrande spent during more than 40 years almost half a million francs to cover expenses necessary to build his collection, deposited now in the National Museum in Prague.
From 1841 to 1883 he was the property manager and consultant of Henry Count Chambord. In 1850 Barrande realised longer trips abroad, probably as Count Chambord's secretary. Barrande's notebook that year is full of lists of persons who applied for audiences with the Count Chambord. Besides these are addresses of scholars which Barrande met during the trip. He visited Murchison in London and also Dudley and Cambridge. From the trip to England he made notes related to publications he read and to the casting of fossils. His notes from 1851 concern his studies in the Munich and Paris museums.
Barrande was not living only in Prague. He stayed almost every year for several months in Paris. During his stay in Paris he regularly attended meetings of the French Geological Society. French contemporaries who met Barrande in France remembered him as a cold, withdrawn man dressed with severe elegance. Barrande travelled to most of the European Paleozoic areas - France, Belgium, Spain, England, Germany and Scandinavia.
The Academy of Sciences was supporting Barrande's work every year since 1848 with 1 500 goldens and from the end of 1870 with 750 goldens annually. However, Barrande had to apply for this support every year. It is interesting that Barrande's first application letter was read on April 13th, 1848 at the first session of the Emperor's Academy of Sciences. Barrande justified his application for help with publication of his work on the Silurian of Bohemia by the fact that he spent between 1836 and 1848 more than 25 000 francs for collection of fossils and travelling expenses. The scope of Barrande's work has never been and probably will never be surpassed by another naturalist. There are more than 3550 species of fossil organisms from the Early Paleozoic of Bohemia described on almost 5696 pages and figured on 1076 lithographic plates. It is also interesting that the whole "Systéme Silurien" was sold for 1575 francs. Nevertheless, Barrande presented it generously to many scientific institutions in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and abroad and also to many scholarly colleagues throughout the World. He showed to the World by his work that the Early Paleozoc of Bohemia is one of the richest Lower Paleozoic areas for fossils on Earth. Thanks to Barrande, Bohemia became a classic area for the study of Earth History to all geologists and educated naturalists.
Barrande bequeathed his whole library and in particular his giant collection to the Czech Museum. The collection nowadays fills one of the large halls in the National Museum building in Wenceslas Square and also a large part of the space in the basement.
[source: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/joachimbarrande/tradangl.html] |