(Born: Paris, France, 14 November 1795; Died: Saint-Germain, France, 29 July 1841) French physician, mineralogist & mathematician.

Lévy was recognized early on to have a proclivity for math and was given a good education in France. In 1818, he was sent to London to study at the Royal College of Physicians. While in England he became associated with the successful mineral dealer Henry Heuland. Through Heuland, Lévy came to know many of the leading English scientists, including especially William Hyde Wollaston [1766-1828] and the astronomer John William Herschel [1792-1871]. Lévy became an instructor at the University of Liége in Belgium from 1828 to 1830. From there he went on to become professor of mineralogy at the Collège Royal de Charlemagne in Paris. He held membership in the Bruxelles Academie des Sciences.

Biographical references: Annuaire de l'Academie des Sciences de Bruxelles. • Biographie Universelle: 24, 414. • Jewish Biographical Archive: 430, 197-207; S75, 99-101. • Lacroix, Alfred., "Armand Lévy (1795-1841)", Bulletin de la Société Française de Minéralogie et de Cristallographie, 42, (1919), 122-9. • Le Roy, A., Liber memorialis: l'Université de Liége depuis sa formation. Liége, 1869, pp. 425-8. • Poggendorff: 1, cols. 1442-3. • Sarjeant, Geologists, 1980: 3, 1561. • WBI.

Description d'une Collection, 1838

1. French, 1837-8 [Collection catalog].
Description | D'Une Collection | De Minéraux, | Formée | Par M. Henri Heuland, | Et Appartenant | A M. Ch. Hampden Turner, De Rooksnest, | Dans Le Comté De Surrey En Angleterre; | Par A. Lévy, | Membre De L'Université De France; De elles; De La Société Philomatique De Paris, De Sociétés Géologiques De Londres | Et De France; Et De La Société Des Sciences Naturelles De Lège. | Trois Volumes Avec Un Atlas De 83 Planches. | Tome Premier. [-Troisième.] | [ornate rule] | Londres, | Adolphe Richter Et Compagnie, | Libraires De Sa Majesté; | A Édinbourg, Chez Clarke; A Dublin, Chez Miliken, | [rule] | 1838.

3 vols. and atlas. [Vol 1: 1838] 8°: [2], [i]-iv, [1]-456, [i]-iii, [3] p.; [Vol 2: 1837] 8°: [2], [1]-476, [i]-iv, [2] p.; [Vol 3: 1837] 8°: [2], [1]-455, [1] blank, [i]-v, [3] p.; [Atlas] plates I-L, L*, LI-LXXXIII. Sinkankas (1993) calls for half titles on all three vols. of the text. In addition, the "Table des Espèces" and some other additional pages are bound at the start of the vols. he examined. Page size: Text: 204 x 115 mm.; Atlas: 315 x 240 mm.

Contents: [Vol 1] [2 pgs], Title page, verso blank.; [i]-iv, Preface.; [1]-456, "Description d'une Collection de Mineraux."; [i]-iii, "Table des Espèces décrites dans le Premier Volume."; [1 pg], Blank.; [1 pg], "Errata du Premier Volume."; [1 pg], Blank.

[Vol 2] [2 pgs], Title page, verso blank.; [1]-476, "Description d'une Collection de Mineraux."; [i]-iv, "Table des Espèces décrites dans le Deuxième Volume."; [1 pg], "Errata du Second Volume."; [1 pg], Blank.

[Vol 3] [2 pgs], Title page, verso blank.; [1]-450, "Description d'une Collection de Mineraux."; 451-455, "Index Géneral des Espèces Décrites dans cet Ouvrage."; [456], Blank.; [i]-v, "Table des Espèces décrites dans le Troisième Volume."; [1 pg], Blank.; [1 pg], "Errata du Troisième Volume."; [1 pg], Blank.

[Atlas] 84 plates of crystal drawings on 83 leaves.

Very scarce. One of the most elaborate and important catalogs of any mineral collection. About 1806 Henry Heuland [see note below] the premier mineral dealer of the nineteenth century obtained a fine collection of minerals formed by his mineral dealer uncle Jacob Forster [see note under Romé de l'Isle]. After considerably enhancing the collection with valuable additions, Heuland sold the collection to Charles Hampden Turner [see note below] in 1820. However, a condition of the sale was that an elaborate catalogue raisonné following the classification system of Haüy be prepared together with an atlas of crystal drawings. For this task the services of Armand Lévy, then resident in London, were retained.

The dilgence of Lévy as a mineralogist was impressive. It was due to his careful examination of this large collection and his preparation of the illustrative crystal drawings that Lévy discovered and described the mineral species: forsterite, babingtonite, brochantite, roselite, brookite, herschelite, phillipsite, and beudantite. In addition, Lévy also described many new varieties of mineral species already known. These descriptions were set forth in a number of articles published between 1822 and 1827. Then based upon the reputation created by these articles, he left London to live and teach in Belgium. This move to the continent ceased Lévy's involvement with the Catalogue, even though as Heuland states in the preface, Lévy had been given a substantial advance. In frustration, Heuland, on the advice of Henry James Brooke [q.v.] and his son Charles Brooke, turned the work over to M.E. Brookes who completed the 34 remaining plates and brought the manuscript to publication. The collection itself was eventually incorporated into Henry Ludlam's, which was bequeathed to the Museum of Practical Geology in London.

John Henry Heuland. (Born: 1778; Died: Hastings, Sussex, England, 16 November 1856) English mineral collector & dealer. Heuland was the nephew of the mineral dealer Jacob Forster [see note under Romé de l'Isle], whose collection he inherited. Subsequently the collection was sold to Charles Hampden Turner, that was later incorporated into Henry Ludlam's, now in the Museum of Practical Geology, London. Heuland was elected to the Geological Society of London in 1813, becoming its foreign secretary from 1818 to 1828. The mineral "Heulandite" named for him by H.J. Brooke in 1822.

Charles Hampden Turner. (Born:      ; Died:      ) English mineralogist & mineral collector. Turner sold his collection to Henry Ludlam.

Bibliographical references: Dana's 7th (Bibliography): 76. • NUC: 330, 154 [NL 0313725]. • Partsch, Katalog der Bibliothek, 1851: no. 473. • Russell, A., "John Henry Heuland," Mineralogical Magazine, 20 (1950), 395-405: 29 (1950), 395-405. • Sinkankas, Gemology Bibliography, 1993: no. 3924. (Heuland) Cooper, M.P., "Keeping it in the family: the Humphreys, Forsters and Heulands," Matrix, 9 (2001), no. 1, 3-31. • Embry, Foreword, 1977. • Russell, A., "John Henry Heuland," Mineralogical Magazine, 20 (1950), 395-405. • Sarjeant, Geologists, 1980: 2, 1252. • Woodward, History of the Geological Society, 1907: 72, 73, 275 & 298. (Turner) Cleevely, World Palæontological Collections, 1983: 293. • Embry, Foreword, 1977: xxii. • Russell, A., "Philip Rashleigh of Menabilly, Cornwall, and his mineral collection," Journal of the Royal Institute of Cornwall. New Series, 1 (1952), no. 2, 96-118, portrait.

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