The directory «Plots of stamps in the catalogue»

Lacepede Bernard-Germain-Etienne
(1756—1825)

French naturalist, was born at Agen in Guienne on the 26th of December 1756. His education was carefully conducted by his father, and the early perusal of Buffons Natural History awakened his interest in that branch of study, which absorbed his chief attention. His leisure he devoted to music, in which, besides becoming a good performer on the piano and organ, he acquired considerable mastery of composition, two of his operas (which were never published) meeting with the high approval of Gluck; in 1781-1785 he also brought out in two volumes his Poitique de la musique. Meantime he wrote two treaties, Essai sur llectricit (1781), which gained him the friendship of Buffon, who in 1785 appointed him subdemonstrator in the Jardin du Roi, and proposed to him to become the continuator of his Histoire naturelle. After the Revolution Lacepede became a member of the legislative assembly, but during the Reigon of Terror he left Paris, his life having become endangered by his disapproval of the massacres. When the Jaidin du Roi was reorganized as the Jardin des Plantes, Lacepde was appointed to the chair allocated to the study of reptiles and fishes. From this period tifi his death the part he took in politics prevented him making any further contribution of importance to science. In 1799 he became a senator, in 1801 president of the senate, in 1803 grand chancellor of the legion of honor, in 1804 minister of state, and at the Restoration in 1819 he was created a peer of France. He died at Epinay on the 6th of October 1825.

Ras al-Khaima, 1970, Proclamation of the Empire at Saint-Cloud

Upper Volta, 1969, First presentation of the Legion of Honour

France, 2003.10.04—05, Epiney-sur-Seine. Lacipede