Feuillet, Louis

FEUILLÉE, LOUIS. - La Fevillea. Design by Tarpin, engraving by Corsi.

Canary Islands. He rigorously determined the first meridian of the Island of Ferro. He was the first to measure the relative position of the components of a double star, in 1709 at Lima, and to make practical use in 1708 of lunar distances for the determination of longitudes. As a botanist he is classified among the «Primatri» (A. Loo, Autores Botanici, in Ancomitates academicae, V, Erlangen 1788), and Linnaeus gave the name fevillea to a genus of plants that grow in South America; F. studied and illustrated, reproducing them true to life in color (he was a most skilled draftsman), very many plants of America, especially the medicinal ones: he published the Histoire des plantes médicinales, which stands as a work in its own right at the end of the Journal where he published the result of his studies: Journal des observations physiques, mathématiques et botaniques (3 vols. in 4°, Paris 1714-25). The 100 plates of illustrated botany were republished with their description, in a German version by G. L. Huth (Nuremberg 1756-57); and in the Actes et Mémoires of the royal academy of France (1 [1666-68]; 7 [1699-1731]: many manuscripts are in the libraries of Paris and Marseille).