Jacques Cambry (2 October 1749 – 31 December 1807) was a Breton writer and expert in Celtic France. An early proponent of what came to be called Celtomania, he was the founder of the Celtic Academy, the forerunner of the Societé des Antiquaires de France. In addition, he is still honored as the "inventor" of the Oise ''département'' and praised for his contributions to the regional Breton identity as well as the national identity of post-Revolutionary

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Biography

Cambry, the son of a naval engineer, was born in Lorient,

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

. He embraced the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

, and was appointed to various governmental positions, including district attorney for the Lorient ''commune'' in 1792. In 1794 he became Commissioner for Science and Arts and embarked upon a journey in

to visit the depots of confiscated nobility properties and the monasteries, which he published a report about in 1799. In 1799 he was appointed administrator of the Department of the Seine. On 2 March 1800, he was installed as prefect of the newly established ''département'' the Oise by

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

, and engaged himself deeply not just in administrative but also in cultural, archeological, and historical matters; when he left office, on 16 May 1802, he had given the new ''département'' a sense of unity and had convinced its inhabitants that they had a history they should be proud of. He was the first president of the ''académie celtique'' which he cofounded in 1804 with the philologist Éloi Johanneau and the diplomat Michel-Ange Mangourit. The ''académie'' held its inaugural session on 30 March 1805 and subsequently reinvented itself as the ''Société des Antiquaires''. He remained president until his death in 1807. Considered a true Enlightenment man, he is praised as well for his service to the national construction of France.

Publications and interests

Cambry published on historical and archeological topics. His ''Voyage dans le Finistère'' (1799) proved to be an important late-eighteenth century text exemplifying the concept of the sublime, as well as foreshadowing the movement in the nineteenth century that came to be known as Celtomania. It contains an early description of the

Finistère Finistère (, ; br, Penn-ar-Bed ) is a department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090.

''département'' in Brittany, and was "hugely influential," and the book's heavily romantic and idealized description of, for instance, the

Pointe du Raz The Pointe du Raz is a promontory that extends into the Atlantic from western Brittany, in France. The local Breton name is ''Beg ar Raz''. It is the western point of the ''commune'' of Plogoff, Finistère. It is named after the ''Raz de Sein' ...

became the inspiration for other writers describing the place in the following years. The book likewise greatly promoted travel to the area. While the book was originally intended as little more than an inventory of art objects that had escaped vandalism, it became much more than that; French historian Alain Corbin qualified Cambry's prose as an "emotional mapping of the sea-shore" and refers to Cambry's jubilant evocations of moments of sublimity as "in the manner of Ossian's disciples." His ''Monumens celtiques, ou recherches sur le culte des pierres'' (1805) is especially notable as an important work on Celtic monuments and megaliths in France and on

druid A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...

ism in general; Cambry dedicated the book to

, and "promoted a nationalist view of Breton megalithic monuments." Cambry also wrote on art, and published an essay on the painter

Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for ...

. As the former administrator of the Seine, he submitted a proposal to turn the quarries of

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

into a cemetery, a plan which was never executed. His 1799 ''Rapport sur les sépultures'' accompanied the design by architect Jacques Molinos, and was inspired by an essay competition proposed a few years before by the National Institute of Sciences and Arts on how to deal with burial in post-Revolutionary France. The cemetery was designed as a circle, with a central temple containing a

crematorium A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also b ...

and a repository for urns.

List of Publications

* ''Traces du Magnétisme''. The Hague: 1784. * ''Contes et proverbes, suivis d'une notice sur les troubadours''. Amsterdam: 1784 (repr. 1787). **Small collection of anecdotes drawn from Claude Fauchet, Étienne Pasquier,

Nostradamus Michel de Nostredame (December 1503 – July 1566), usually Latinised as Nostradamus, was a French astrologer, apothecary, physician, and reputed seer, who is best known for his book '' Les Prophéties'' (published in 1555), a collection ...

Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye (June 1697 – 1 March 1781) was a French historian, classicist, philologist and lexicographer. Biography From an ancient family, his father Edme had been gentleman of the bedchamber to the Duke of O ...

, and others. *''Promenades d'Automne en Angleterre''. 1787. *''Catalogue des objets échappés au vandalisme''. 1795. *''Rapport sur les sépultures, présenté à l'administration centrale du département de la Seine, par le citoyen Cambry''. Paris: Pierre Didot l'Aîné, an VII 1799. **Remarking on the disastrous condition of many cemeteries at the end of the

, Cambry proposes a far-reaching effort to renew the way in which burials take place: "Respect for the dead, much more than one thinks, contributes to social well-being." *''Essai sur la vie et sur les tableaux du Poussin'', Pierre Didot l'Aîné, an VII. 1799. *''Voyage dans le Finistère ou État de ce département en 1794 et 1795''. Imprimerie-Librairie du Cercle Social, an VII 1799. **Originally conceived as a report on the state of the ''département'', it describes its condition shortly after the French Revolution. *''Voyage Pittoresque en Suisse et en Italie''. Paris: Jansen, an IX (1801). *''Description du département de l'Oise en deux volumes''. Imprimerie de P. Didot L'ainé, an XI. 1803.
''Monumens celtiques, ou recherches sur le culte des pierres, Précédées d'une Notice sur les Celtes et sur les Druites, et suivies d'Étymologies celtiques''
Paris: chez Mad. Johanneau, Libraire, Palais du Tribunat, an XIII 1805.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cambry, Jacques Writers from Lorient 1749 births 1807 deaths Historians of France French male non-fiction writers