Joseph Marie Quérard (25 December 1797 – 3 December 1865) was a French

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliograph ...

. He was born at

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

, where he was apprenticed to a bookseller. Sent abroad on business, he remained in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

from 1819 to 1824, where he drew up the first volumes of his great work, ''La France littéraire, ou Dictionnaire bibliographique des savants, historiens, et gens de lettres de la France, &c.'' (14 vols., 1826–1842). This bibliography dealt with the 18th and early 19th centuries, and he was enabled to complete it by a government subsidy granted by Guizot in 1830, and using the assistance of the Russian bibliophile Serge Poltoratzky. His final volume of contemporary French literature, with which he hoped to complete his work, was cancelled by his publisher, the firm of Didot, without a kill fee. Didot then gave his ''Littérature française contemporaine'' to the bibliographers Ch. Louandre and F. Bourquelot. Financially ruined and without an income, Quérard avenged himself by pointing out the errors of his successors. In spite of his claims and the value of the work he had done, Quérard was unable to secure a position in any of the public libraries. He died in Paris. Among his other works are: ''Les supercheries littéraires dévoilées'' (5 vols., 1845–56); ''Bibliographie La Menaisienne'' (1849); ''Dictionnaire des ouvrages-polyonymes et anonymes de la littérature française, 1700–1850'' (1846–47); an additional volume to ''La France littéraire'' entitled ''Écrivains pseudonymes,'' etc. (1854–56).

References

*
A Martyr to Bibliography: A Notice of the Life and Works of Joseph-Marie Quérard
by "Olphar Hamst", a pseudonym of Ralph Thomas, London, 1867

External links

Joseph-Marie Quérard
on data.bnf.fr {{DEFAULTSORT:Querard, Joseph Marie French bibliographers French male non-fiction writers Knights of the Legion of Honour Writers from Rennes 1797 births 1865 deaths Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery