The Letters of Dominique Chaix, Botanist-Curé

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etween 1772 and 1799, Dominique Chaix wrote 170 letters to Dominique Villars. B None of the letters that Vtllars wrote in response have survived, and there is evidence to indicate that Chaix simply did not retain incoming letters once they had served their informative purpose. Villars, blessed with more ample facilities, kept incoming letters, and those from Chaix are now preserved in the Bibliotheque Municipale de Grenoble in three volumes under the number RI0073. A transcription of them for public use was made earlier in this century under the supervision of Georges de Manteyer [Georges-Barthelemy-Marie Pinet de Manteyer] when he was archivist of the Department of Hautes-Alpes. I am gready indebted to Mme Marie-Fran~ise Bois-Delatte, Conservateur des Fonds Dauphinoise at the Bibliotheque Municipale d'Etude et d'lnformation in Grenoble, not merely for making these letters available to me, but for her eagerness to see someone take an interest in Dauphinois botanists. I met a similar friendly interest at the Archives du Departement des Hautes-Alpes in Gap. I thank M. Pierre-Yves Playoust, Directeur des Services, and members of his archival staff for the cordial assistance in my search for materials documenting the career of the abbe Chaix. I am also obligated to the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for providing me photocopies of Villars' letters in their Allioni collection. They relate to the composition of a flora for Dauphine and are revealing of Villars' character.