Christophe Colomb: Son Origine, Sa Vie, Ses Voyages, Sa Famille & Ses Descendants D'après Des Documents Inédits Tirés Des Archives De Gênes, De ... : Études D'histoire Critique (French Edition)
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima: A Description of Works Relating to America Published Between the Years 1492 and 1551 ...
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
Henry Harisse was a French-born American critic, lawyer, historian and bibliographer. He served as a professor of French at the University of North Carolina, and was the author of Bibliotheca Americana Vetusissima, a description of over three hundred writings on America published between 1492 and 1551, where wrote extensively on Christopher and Ferdinand Columbus, John and Sebastian Cabot, and the early voyages of American exploration.
Background
Henry Harrisse was born on May 28, 1829 in the fifth arrondissement of Paris, France. He was the son of Abraham and Annette Marcus (Prague) Herisse. His father was of Jewish origin, and, it was believed, from Russia; his mother was a French Catholic.
Very young, he moved to his American family and takes the nationality of the country.
Education
Harrisse studied at the University of South Carolina. He seems to have attracted the attention of President James H. Thornwell of South Carolina College, to which he went and where he received in 1853 the honorary degree of Master of Arts.
He studied law, and while in Washington he made the acquaintance of Stephen A. Douglas, who persuaded him to go to Chicago to practise.
Career
In July of 1853 Harrisse was appointed instructor in French at the University of North Carolina. He was full of ideas for reform in educational methods and discipline, clashed with faculty and students, and had a somewhat tumultuous career. He returned to South Carolina in 1856 and subsequently became professor of French literature at Georgetown University.
Stephen A. Douglas persuaded him to go to Chicago to practise. Apparently he got few clients, but one at least paid him enough to permit him to indulge his literary tastes on the side. This client, a Spanish banker, brought him to New York in 1861, and made him legal correspondent for the Havana branch of a Spanish bank.
In addition to his professional work he wrote articles for the North American Review and Atlantic Monthly. In New York he came into contact with the scholarly lawyer Samuel Latham Mitchill Barlow, and soon devoted himself to a study of the bibliography of the sources of the story of Christopher Columbus from books in Barlow's library. In 1866 appeared Harrisse's first important work, Notes on Columbus. The preparation of this had led him into a study of all the printed books relating to America before 1550, and in the same year appeared his monumental Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima. A Description of Works Relating to America, Published between the Years 1492 and 1551, the publication of which was sponsored by Barlow. About this time Harrisse lost his single client, and decided to pursue his bibliographic studies abroad.
He went to France, where the reputation of the Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima had preceded him and gained him recognition among the learned. In 1868 he returned to New York for a short stay but by October 1869 he was back in Paris, where he lived the rest of his life. Here he was able to practise law, study bibliography, and write history all at the same time. His contact with Henry Vignaud procured clients for him whose cases proved decidedly lucrative, yet left him ample time for his scholarly work.
Harrisse remained in Paris during the Franco-Prussian War, corresponding with George Sand, and continuing his investigations, which resulted in the publication in 1872 of his Notes pour Servir l'Histoire, la Bibliographie et la Cartographie de la Nouvelle-France et des Pays Adjacents, 1545-1700. This work was done in spite of the jealousy of Pierre Margry, head of the naval archives, who was trying to monopolize the documents.
After the siege of Paris in 1871, Harrisse returned to his earlier interest in the age of discoveries, particularly with respect to Columbus. He studied extensively in Spain, where he got into many academic controversies of the sort which delighted his soul. In 1884 and 1885 appeared his work on Columbus - Christophe Colomb, Son Origine, Sa Vie, Ses Voyages, Sa Famille et Ses Descendants. The next few years he spent on the question of who really discovered North America, and this work resulted in The Discovery of North America (1892) and later, in his John Cabot, the Discoverer of North America (1896). The celebration of the four-hundredth anniversary of Columbus's first voyage found Harrisse in his element and his literary output about the year 1892 was extensive. The nature of his studies and his work as a bibliographer rather than as a historian is well summed up in George P. Winship's remark on Harrisse's Cabot: "This work is not a history; it is rather a laboratory manual, in which the student finds revealed each step of the processes through which the material of history has been forced, in order that it might be made to render up the truth which was concealed within it. " He had a genius for compiling lists, so annotated that he pointed out exactly what a given book was and how it added to the sum total of knowledge. In all he left behind him over ninety books, monographs, and articles, the majority of which relate to the history of America in the period of the discovery.
During these many years of productive scholarship, his principal means of support seems to have been his law practice in Paris, which comprised dealings with American clients having business in France. But his real work was also his real pleasure - investigation into early Americana and defending the theses which resulted from his findings and his discoveries. He certainly left the standards of bibliographical investigation much higher than he found them.
Although he frequently criticized others, he was his own severest critic. His Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima remains a standard work, but anyone interested in Harrisse should examine his personal copy of that book (now at the Library of Congress), almost every page of which is filled with corrections, additions, and marginalia in his exquisite handwriting. Toward the end of his long life certain bodily infirmities accentuated his sharpness of pen and tongue, but his scholarly activity was maintained until his death in Paris in 1910. His ashes were placed in Père-Lachaise.
His extensive library was split up. His own copies of his works he bequeathed to the Library of Congress in Washington, as a result of correspondence with the librarian beginning as early as 1907. His books on French art and literature went to the Bibliothéque Nationale. Some 1700 volumes of the remainder of his library were bought by the French dealer Chadenat and by him offered for sale in 1912. The residue, about 200, had been sold by auction at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris in 1911. Many of these are now in the William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan.
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Views
Although Harrisse spent the best part of his life in Paris, he considered himself an American to the end.
Membership
Harrisse was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1893.
Personality
Like a true explorer Harrisse was ever seeking new knowledge, correcting in one voyage errors made in another. He did not hesitate to alter his views when newly discovered facts demanded it. He was strong in defending his opinions and did notescape controversies with those who opposed them. But he was a true scholar and no love of ease or honour tempted him away from the joyful toil of his studies.
Connections
Nothing is known about Harrisse's family. Presumably, he was so devoted to his work that he never married.