Person

Barrande, Joachim, 1799-1883

1799-1883

Joachim Barrande was born on August 11, 1799, in Saugues, Haute Loire, France.

He was a French geologist and paleontologist. He studied engineering at the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris. He worked as a tutor for the Duc de Bordeaux, who later became known as the Comte de Chambord, the grandson of Charles X. After the king's abdication in 1830, Barrande accompanied the royal exiles to England and Scotland, and later to Prague.

In Prague, he initially focused on engineering projects but soon developed an interest in fossils from the Lower Palaeozoic rocks of Bohemia. From 1840 to 1850, he studied these rocks, collected fossils, and documented approximately 3,500 species, including graptolites, brachiopods, mollusks, trilobites, and fish. Barrande supported the theory of catastrophism, as proposed by Georges Cuvier, and he rejected Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and the concept of species transmutation.

In 1852, he published the first volume of his significant work, "Système silurien du centre de la Bohême." Two additional volumes were published posthumously in 1887 and 1894. In recognition of his important research, the Geological Society of London awarded him the Wollaston Medal in 1857. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1862, became a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1870, and was recognized as a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1875. Barrande bequeathed his extensive fossil collection to the National Museum in Prague. In 1884, the Barrande Rocks in Prague were named in his honour, and a large plaque bearing his name was placed at the site. In 1928, a district of Prague was named Barrandov in tribute to him.

He died on October 5, 1883, in Frohsdorf, Vienna, Austria.