Background
Marc Theodore Bourrit was born in 1739 at Geneva, Switzerland. He came of a family which was of French origin but-had taken refuge at Geneva for reasons connected with religion. His father was a watchmaker there.
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Marc Theodore Bourrit was born in 1739 at Geneva, Switzerland. He came of a family which was of French origin but-had taken refuge at Geneva for reasons connected with religion. His father was a watchmaker there.
Bourrit was educated at Geneva.
Bourrit was a good artist and etcher, and also a pastor, so that by reason of his fine voice and love of music he was made (1768) precentor of the church of St Peter (the former cathedral) at Geneva. This post enabled him to devote himself to the exploration of the, Alps, for which he had conceived a great passion ever since an ascent (1761) of the Voirons, near Geneva. He received a pension from Louis XVI. His last visit to Chamonix was in 1812. His writings are composed in a naive, sentimental and rather pompous style, but breathe throughout a most passionate love for the Alps, as wonders of nature, and not as objects of scientific study.
His chief works are the Description des glacieres de Savoye, 1773 (English translation, Norwich, 1775–1776), the Description des Alpes pennines et rhetiennes (2 vols. , 1781) (reprinted in 1783 under the title of Nouvelle Description des vallées de glace, and in 1785, with additions, in 3 vols. , under the name of Nouvelle Description des glacieres), and the Descriptions des cols ou passages des Alpes, (2 vols. , 1803), while his Itineraire de Geneve, Lausanne et Chamouni, first published in 1791, went through several editions in his lifetime.
In 1784-1785 Marc Theodore Bourrit was the first traveller to attempt the ascent of Mont Blanc (not conquered till 1786), but neither then nor later (1788) did he succeed in reaching its summit.
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
Marc Theodore Bourrit was a good artist and etcher, and also a pastor, so that by reason of his fine voice and love of music he was made (1768) precentor of the church of Street Peter (the former cathedral) at Geneva.