Baron Charles Athanase Walckenaer (25 December 1771 – 28 April 1852) was a French

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

, writer, man of letters, and scientist. He was a polymath and wrote extensively on geography, natural history, and literature. Major contributions included his multi-volume natural histories of arachnids and insects, some published in collaboration with others. He was made a baron in 1823.

Biography

Walckenaer was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and after losing his parents at an early age he was raised by his uncle Charles-Nicolas Duclos Dufresnoy, a notary in the court of

Louis XVI Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...

. His uncle's elite and educated circle made an impression on the young boy and he was sent to study at the universities of

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

and

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. Dufresnoy was guillotined in 1794 following the French Revolution for being associated with the regime. In 1793, Walckenaer was appointed head of the military transports in the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

, after which he pursued technical studies at the

École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées École nationale des ponts et chaussées (; ; abbr. ENPC), also nicknamed Ponts (), formerly known as École des Ponts ParisTech (), is a grande école in the field of science, engineering and technology, of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris, a ...

and the

École polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

. He was elected member of the

Institut de France The ; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the . It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute manages approximately ...

in 1813, was

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

(''maire'') in the 5th arrondissement in Paris and secretary-general of the prefect of the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

1816–1825. He was made a

baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

in 1823. He was dismissed in 1830 from his government position and he spent his time in studies. Walckenaer married a relative Joséphine Marie Jeanne Antoinette Marcotte de Pyn (1776-1849) in 1794. He was a keen entomologist and arachnologist and one of the founders of the

Société entomologique de France Groupe Lactalis S.A. (doing business as Lactalis) is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier S.A. Lactalis is the largest dairy p ...

in 1832, and a "resident member" of the

Société des observateurs de l'homme Société des observateurs de l'homme, rendered in English as Society of Observers of Man, was a French learned society founded in Paris in 1799. Long considered the birthplace of French anthropology, the society nevertheless dissolved in 1804. ...

. He wrote the ''Histoire naturelle des insectes'' (4 vols., 1836–1847) together with

Paul Gervais Paul Gervais (full name: François Louis Paul Gervais) (26 September 1816 – 10 February 1879) was a French palaeontologist and entomologist. Biography Gervais was born in Paris, where he obtained the diplomas of doctor of science and of medic ...

. He collected specimens and information on spiders from around the world and described a number of taxa. He transferred the black widow to its current genus and discovered multiple species of ''

Cyclosa ''Cyclosa'', also called trashline orbweavers, is a genus of orb-weaver spiders first described by Anton Menge in 1866. Widely distributed worldwide, spiders of the genus ''Cyclosa'' build relatively small orb webs with a web decoration. The w ...

'', including '' C. turbinata''. Walckenaer introduced the full biography according to the English model into

French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by French people, French citizens; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of Franc ...

through his works ''Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de la Fontaine'' (1820, 4th ed. 1858), ''Histoire de la vie et des poésies d'Horace'' (1840; new ed. 1858) and ''Mémoires touchent la vie et les écrits de Mme de Sevigné'' (6 volumes, 1842–1865). In the works of La Bruyère, which he published in 1845, he returned to the original text. In 1839, he was appointed conservator for the Department of Maps at the Royal Library in Paris and in 1840, secretary for life in the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

. In the area of geography, he discovered the

map of Juan de la Cosa The map of Juan de la Cosa is a world map that includes the earliest known representation of the New World and the first depiction of the equator and the Tropic of Cancer on a nautical chart. The map is attributed to the Castilian navigator and ...

, the oldest extant map that shows the American continent, and published ''La monde maritime'' (4 vols., 1818), ''Histoire générale des voyages'' (21 vols., 1826–1831) and ''Géographie ancienne, historique et comparée des Gaules'' (3 vols., 1839, new ed. 1862).

References

External links

Faune parisienne, insectes, ou, Histoire abrégée des insectes des environs de Paris
(1802)
Histoire naturelle des araneides
(1806)
Histoire naturelle des insectes. Aptères
(1837-1847) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Walckenaer, Charles 1771 births 1852 deaths French entomologists French arachnologists 18th-century French zoologists 19th-century French zoologists 18th-century French civil servants 19th-century French civil servants Barons Walckenaer École Polytechnique alumni Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Presidents of the Société entomologique de France Scientists from Paris Alumni of the University of Oxford Alumni of the University of Glasgow