COMPLETE TRILOBITE PAPERS 11
Now Available on CD-ROM

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The Trilobite Papers - 11 is a special issue in celebration of the birth of Joachim Barrande 1799-1883.

From the Editor

These last few months leading up to the universal Millennial extravaganza and beanfeed (and Y2K frenzy) is perhaps not the best time to ponder why we as humans attribute such signal importance to passages of even thousands or hundreds of years. Without exploring that philosophical theme, here at the Denman Institute for Research on Trilobites we are delighted to join with our colleagues in the Czech Republic and elsewhere to celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of Joachim Barrande with a special issue of The Trilobite Papers. However, it could be argued that, for trilobite workers, the most appropriate date to celebrate is not Barrande’s birth in 1799 or his death in 1883, but rather 1852 -- the year he published the first volume of La Systeme silurien du centre de la Boheme that was devoted to trilobites, because the appearance of that monograph effectively demonstrated that trilobites are a complex arthropod group worthy of detailed study. Thus, the 1852 monograph marked the start of trilobite study as a formal paleontological discipline. One needs only compare it with James Hall’s treatment and illustrations of trilobites in his Palaeontology of New York, Volume 1 (1847) to appreciate the quantum advance that Barrande’s monograph represented. This issue of The Trilobite Papers contains a baker’s half-dozen articles about this remarkable man; including no fewer than two biographies! I thank Ivo Chlupac for keeping me supplied with Barrande news, books and items from the Czech Republic.

Rolf Ludvigsen

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Brian Pratt, University of Saskatchewan

Joachim Barrande was born the 11th of August 1799 on the family farm near the town of Sangues, department of Haute-Loire, southern France. His family was an old and noble one of Spanish origin. Although little is known of his childhood, he apparently was interested in natural history and mechanical things from an early age. Barrande was educated in engineering and natural science at Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole de Ponts de Chaussees in Paris between 1891 and 1824. While in Paris, Barrande came into contact with the great men of French natural history, including Georges Cuvier, Alexandre Brongniart and Alcide d’Orbigny, and their influence, particularly that of Cuvier, was to remain an important facet of his scientific philosophy during his subsequent private researches in Bohemia.

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The first volume of Barrande’s great work on the Paleozoic of Bohemia Le Systeme silurien du centre de la Boheme was published in 1852. This tome was devoted to the trilobites and was prepared with such meticulous detail and accuracy, both in the text and illustrations, that it achieved for him immediate international recognition. By 1881 Barrande had published privately 22 quarto volumes forming eight parts of the series on the Paleozoic fossils. This contains more than 6,000 pages and 1,160 lithographed plates describing nearly 4,000 fossil species, a monumental piece of work that has never been matched by other natural historians. Because of the precision, it is still referenced by modern paleontologists and may well be the single most often cited work in Paleozoic paleontology. The large number of plates reflects the importance Barrance attached to thorough illustration, especieially of each important character and the range of variation it may exhibit -- he may well have been the pioneer in this, now standard paleontological practice. He first tackled the trilobites (1846, 1852, 1871), then the graptolites (1850), cephalopods (1865, 1867, 1868, 1870, 1874, 1877), pteropods (1867), other crustaceans and fish (1872), brachiopods (1879), bivalves (1881) and cystoid echinoderms (published posthumously, 1887). By the time he died in 1883, he had not completed descriptions and illustrations of some 1,500 other fossil species, but he left money in his will for their later study and publication. This work was to be carried out by Barrande’s only true pupil, Ottomar Pravoslav Novak, but it was cut short by Novak’s ill health and early death. Subsequent volumes did appear, however, on the gastropods, crinoids, corals, trace fossils, bryozoans and hydrozoans.

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Barrande died from pneumonia on the 5th of October 1883 in Frohsdorf, Austria while executing the will of Henri de Chambord who had just died there himself. He left his vast personal library and fossil collections, including type material, to the National Museum in Prague.

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A trilobite on a coat of arms

The coat of arms of La ville de Perce at the tip of Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec features a Gaspe fishing boat, a codfish, a view of Perce Rock and, wonder of wonders, a trilobite. Flanking the shield is a pair of gannets, the best known sea bird of the area.