Numa Broc

Numa Camille Broc (26 January 1934 – 12 March 2017), was a French geographer, specialist in the history and epistemology of geography.

Biography

Numa Broc was born in Versailles, into a family of civil servants. Broc did his secondary studies at the Lycée de Perpignan (1945–1951), then studied at the University of Clermont-Ferrand (1951–1955). After obtaining the CAPES (1956), he became an agrégé of geography in 1960.

He taught at the high school in Beauvais (1956–1957), then from 1957 to 1959 in Algeria, Constantine and Algiers. In 1964, he met François de Dainville who directed him towards the history of geography and explorers. He defended his post-graduate thesis in Montpellier (1966) on the mountain in the Age of Enlightenment and then his State thesis in 1971 entitled La Géographie des philosophes.

Assistant, then lecturer at the University of Montpellier, he is professor emeritus of geography at the University of Perpignan. Member of the E.R.A. (Epistemology of History of Geography) of the C.N.R.S., he has published numerous articles in geography and university journals as well as several books.

He married Marie Louise Rouzaud who supported him all his life in his research.

Despite his serious visual handicap which affected him in the last part of his professional career, with the help of his wife Marie Louise and one of his friends he wrote and published his last work in 2 volumes: Une histoire de la géographie physique en France (XIXe-XXe siècles) in 2010 at the age of 76.

He was also president of the Alpine Club of Perpignan.

Numa Broc died in Perpignan on March 12, 2017. He bequeathed part of his prestigious library and documents to the University of Perpignan and the Perpignan City Hall. He is buried in the Old Cemetery of Thuir.

Works

• Les montagnes vues par les géographes et les naturalistes de langue française au XVIIIe siècle (1969)
• La géographie des philosophes, géographes et voyageurs français au XVIIIe siècle (1975)
• La géographie de la renaissance, 1420-1620 (1986)
• Les grandes missions scientifiques françaises au XIXe siècle (Morée, Algérie, Mexique) et leurs travaux géographiques (1981)
• Ludovic Drapeyron (1839-1901) (1982)
• Quelle est la plus ancienne carte moderne de France? (1983)
• François de Dainville, La cartographie reflet de l'histoire (1986; editor)
• Autour du monde 1767-1771, Voyage de François de Pagès par terre et par mer (1991)
• Athanase et le Mont Ophir (1992; preface)
• De l'eau et des hommes en terre catalane (1993; with Michel Brunet, Sylvie Caucanas, Bertrand Desailly & Jean-Pierre Vigneau)
• Regards sur la géographie française de la renaissance à nos jours (1994)
• Montagnes au siècle des lumières, perception et représentation (1995)
• Dictionnaire illustré des explorateurs et grands voyageurs français du XIXe siècle (1988–2003; 4 volumes)
  • Tome 1, Afrique, Cths (1988)
  • Tome 2, Asie, Cths (1999)
  • Tome 3, Amérique, Cths (1999)
  • Tome 4, Océanie, Cths (2003)
• Une histoire de la géographie physique en France (XIXe–XXe siècles) (2010; 2 volumes)

References

• Robert Cornevin, "Numa Broc et les explorations africaines." In: Dictionnaire illustré des explorateurs et grands voyageurs français du XIXe siècle, tome 1, Afrique, Cths (1988), pp. 11–14.
• Aline Rousselle, Le Paysage rural et ses acteurs (1998), p. 11.
• Robert P. Beckinsale, Richard J. Chorley, The History of the Study of Landforms, vol. 3 (2003), p. 477.

External links

• Works by Numa Broc at Gallica
• Works by Numa Broc at Persée