| AdminHistory | Jean Florimond Boudon de Saint-Amans was a French botanist, naturalist and historian. He authored works on botany, agriculture and antiquities. He joined the infantry regiment of Vermandois at the age of 18, during which he travelled to the West Indies and the Caribbean. He left the military in 1773, married a wealthy heiress and moved back to his native town of Agen. From the years 1791-1793 he was a commissioner to the King and in 1794 he became a member of the board of agriculture to the Ministry of the Interior. In 1796 he was appointed professor of natural history at Ecole centrale de Lot-et-Garonne.
A friend of Louis Ramond de Carbonnières, (1755-1827) he was most certainly influenced by the French Ideological movement, which from 1795 attempted to reorganize the education of children and adolescents from Paris. He helped in the creation of the Central School of Lot-et-Garonne in his hometown and after the Revolution taught natural sciences there.
He was often in the company of fellow French naturalists Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent (1778-1846) and Jean Vincent Félix Lamouroux (1779-1825). He was the National correspondent of the Linnean Society of Paris in 1787 and was elected an associate member of the Academy of Bordeaux in 1782. Saint-Amans also participated, along with Bernard Germain Étienne de Laville-sur-Illon, count of Lacépède (1756-1825), Jean-Gérard Lacuee de Cessac (1752-1841) and Lamouroux father (no date) in the founding of the Agen Academy.
From the years 1800 until his death in 1831, he served as President of the General Council of Lot-et-Garonne. |
| Description | Draft manuscript for 'Fragmens d'un voyage sentimental et pittoresque dans les Pyrénées ou Lettre écrite de ces montagnes' [Translation: Fragments of a sentimental and picturesque journey in the Pyrenees, or Letter written from these mountains]. Published in 1789 by Metz Devilly in octavo. Written inside is a small note which reads "The author is Saint-Amans, who published this work in 8vo in 1789. (chez Devillly, Metz) S. Savage. 26 Nov. 1945"
Also included is a loose note written in a different hand which is loosely translated as:
"Saint-Amans, Fragments of a sentimental and picturesque journey in the Pyrenees, foll.ley: Bouquet of the Pyrenees, on Plants observed in these mountains during the months of July and August 1788. Metz. Chez Devilly. 1789. In 8°. The author found Cypripedium calceolus L. on the Piquette d'Endretlis & Asperula hirta, which he reported to the host after Tournefort." |