Toulouse: Paul-Sabatier University reveals the treasures of Picot de Lapeyrouse
The Paul-Sabatier University presents until September 30 an exhibition around the mineralogy collection of Picot de Lapeyrouse.
I feel that I have neither seen nor said everything, but I had to”. Thus spoke Philippe Picot de la Lapeyrouse, first dean of the Faculty of Sciences of Toulouse and first elected mayor of the city from 1800 to 1806, who embraced a career as a lawyer before becoming a naturalist. His passion for natural history led him in the second half of the 18th century to multiply excursions in the Pyrenees, of which he became a recognized specialist. Botany, zoology, mineralogy, everything interests him… His network of “collectors” in France and Europe allows him to exchange or buy fine specimens. Bequeathed to the Faculty of Science in 1823, his geology-mineralogy collection comprised 2,445 samples. Today, 1,600 specimens remain, kept in the reserves, from which the Joint Service for the Study and Conservation of Heritage Collections (SCECCP) of the University of Toulouse III-Paul Sabatier drew to imagine the traveling exhibition “Picot de L apeyrouse, Journey to the heart of the stones”. Co-produced with the Region, it is presented until September 30 on the passageway of the central building of the university and joined on October 5 Auzat, in Ariège, one of the first fields of exploration of the naturalist.
He wanted to unlock the secrets of the Pyrenees
Twenty-five minerals, “harvested” more than two hundred years ago, are exhibited, including a quartz from the Saint-Gothard massif in Switzerland, a red jasper from Sicily, a native silver from Germany or an aragonite found in the Rancié mine, in the Vicdessos valley. “Picot de Lapeyrouse had taken it into his head to unlock the secrets of the Pyrenees. Between 1763 and 1797, he led no less than twenty expeditions ranging from one week to three months throughout the massif. His collection of mineralogy of the Pyrenees faIknows part of the most important in Europe at the time”, says Marie Nonclercq, project manager at the SCECCP. We can also discover in this exhibition representations of playing cards that the Toulouse naturalist had diverted from their playful function and reconverted “in label” to identify each mineral.