FEUILLÉE, LOUIS

FEUILLÉE, LOUIS. - Religious of the Minims, born at Mane, in Provence, in 1660, died at Marseille in 1732. A distinguished scientist, he was a botanist, astronomer, and navigator.

He explored the eastern coasts of America, Peru, the

Isole Canarie. He rigorously determined the prime meridian of Isola del Ferro. He was the first to measure the relative position of the components of a double star, in 1709 in Lima, and to make practical use in 1708 of lunar distances for the determination of longitudes. As a botanist he is classified among the "Primates" (A. Loo, Autores Botanici, in Ancomitates academicae, V, Erlangen 1788), and Linneo gave the name fevillea to a genus of plants that grow in America meridionale; F. studied and illustrated, reproducing them true to life in color (he was a highly skilled draftsman), very many plants of America, especially medicinal ones: he published the Histoire des plantes médicinales, which stands as a work in its own right at the end of the Journal in which he published the results of his studies: Journal des observations physiques, mathématiques et botaniques (3 vols. in 4to, Parigi 1714-25). The 100 plates of illustrated botany were republished with their description, in a German version by G. L. Huth (Norimberga 1756-57); and in the Acts and Memoirs of the Royal Academy of France (1 [1666-68]; 7 [1699-1731]: many manuscripts are in the libraries of Parigi and of Marsiglia).