LeFevre [LeFebvre], Jean

1. Dates

Born: Lisieux, 9 April 1652

Died: Paris, 1706

Dateinfo: Dates certain

Lifespan:54

2. Father

Occupation: No Information

No information on financial status.

3. Nationality

Birth: Lisieux, France

Career: Paris, France

Death: Paris, France

4. Education

Schooling: No University

That is, unknown.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic (assumed)

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Astronomy

7. Means of Support

Primary: Government

Secondary: Art, Calendars

Before 1682, LeFevre was a weaver in Lisieu.

c. 1682, doing calculations for Picard.

After Picard's death, he continued pedestrian aspects of Picard's work, calculating astronomical tables, publishing the Connaissances des Temps, making a few observations and assisting R. de la Hire in surveying.

In 1682, all of this got him elected to the Académie.

8. Patronage

Types: Scientist, Court

LeFevre first appeared in the Parisian scientific community as a friend of a certain Father Pierre, a professor of rhetoric at the College de Lisieux in Paris, who recommened him to Picard, especially in respect to the editing of the Connaissances... Picard hired him, and probably through his influence, probably along with La Hire, got him into the Académie.

LeFevre dedicated the successive editions of the Connaissances to Louis XIV.

In 1687, LeFevre accused La Hire of stealing and publishing his tables. In 1701, probably resentful at not having been named official publisher of ephemerides to the Académie, he similarly accused La Hire's son, Gabriel-Philippe. Pontchartrain, La Hire's protector, was probably behind the government's transfer of the right to publish the Connaissances... to the Académie and the eventually successful campaign to have LeFevre thrown out of the Académie.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Cartography

He did some surveying work for La Hire.

(Note: LeFevre is occasionally mistaken for an instrument maker of the same name who lived at the same time).

10. Scientific Societies

Membership: Académie Royal des Sciences

A member of the Académie (c.1682-1701).

Sources

1. Michaud, Biographie Universelle, 23 (Paris, 1819), 546. [CT153.B6]
2. M.J. Delacourtie, "L'astronome Jean Le Fevre," Bulletin de la Société historique de Lisieux, (1951-1952), 43-8.

Not Available and Not Consulted

1. Amedée Tissot, Etude biographique sur Jean Le Fevre... (Paris, 1872). I find this listed in the catalogue of the Bibliotheque nationale, but no copy appears to exist in the U.S.

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email on geneological questions.