Biometer (1815) - Jean-Louis Vaucher

Jean-Louis Vaucher (1799-1867) was professor of classical literature at the Académie de Genève from 1841 until his death in 1867. From 1831 onwards, he was director of the Bibliothèque publique de Genève, for which he composed the catalogue. He was director of the Revue de la Bibliothèque Universelle, the heir in 1815 to the Revue britannique of the brothers Marc-Auguste and Charles Pictet. Politically, he sat as a member of the Conseil Représentatif and was the rapporteur of the 1835 commission on public education. He was the son of Professor Jean-Pierre-Etienne Vaucher (1763-1841), who was the pastor of Saint-Gervais in Geneva (1795-1822) and teacher in a boarding school he founded in 1787 in Bogis-Bossey in the canton of Berne (now the canton of Vaud), which he later moved to Geneva. He was also professor of theology at the Geneva Academy from 1807 to 1839. Finally, he is known for his work in botany and for having been the teacher of the famous Geneva botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778-1841).

Jean-Louis Vaucher began using Marc-Antoine Jullien's Mémorial horaire on 1 January 1815, two years after the book was published by the Geneva bookseller Jean-Jacques Paschoud (1768-1826). He was then fifteen years and six months old. He filled it out conscientiously until 23 September 1815, indicating in each box the time taken up by each of the activities, even if he did not spend any time on them. To do this, he uses a sign that looks like inverted commas. Thus, Vaucher's use of the Mémorial is very close to what Jullien prescribes in the introduction to the book.

Illustration: BGE, Fonds Vaucher, Ms. 8271/2, Carnet d’emploi du temps de Jean Louis Vaucher selon des aspects moraux, physiques, intellectuel et sociaux, 1815.