CAHIER, CHARLES. – French Jesuit and archaeologist, b. in Paris 26 Feb. 1807, d. there 27 Feb. 1882. He devoted almost his entire life to studies in religious archaeology, with the declared aim of preventing the field from being left to unbelieving scholars.
In collaboration with Fr. MARTINO G (v.) he published: Monographie de la cathédrale de Bourges (Paris 1841–44, large folio; only the first part: Vitruvius du XIIIe siècle, with 33 plates noteworthy for the period), and Mélanges d’archéologie, d’histoire et de littérature (4 vols., ibid. 1848–56, 4to with illustrations).
After his collaborator’s death (1856), he issued the material they had prepared together: Suite aux mélanges d’archéologie (ibid. 1868, 2 vols., almost entirely plates), and Nouveaux mélanges d’archéologie, d’histoire et de littérature du moyen âge (4 vols. 4to, ibid. 1874–77), with many illustrations; the list of dissertations in the three series, indicating the share of each author, is found in Leclercq, cited below.
Meanwhile, C. opened new paths in modern iconography with his highly useful Caractéristiques des saints dans l’art populaire (2 vols. 4to, ibid. 1867, an alphabetical repertory of emblems and symbols, with about 500 figures drawn by Martin).
Besides numerous articles in Annales de philosophie religieuse, Études, Revue de l’art chrétien, etc., he worked extensively on a Géographie ecclésiastique, which remained unpublished.
Despite the defects of a self-taught scholar and an originality at times rather eccentric, C. was an initiator of vast erudition in the field of medieval archaeology.