Philippe Loiseleur des Longchamps Deville

Philippe Loiseleur des Longchamps Deville (27 July 1923 – 24 February 2003) was a French historian.

Life Born in Dakar, he was the eldest son of Henry Loiseleur des Longchamps Deville (1887, Paris – 1956, Sarlat), chief administrator of France d'outre-mer, and Marie Gramain (1889–1966). He studied at the Collège Saint-Joseph and in Sarlat, before attending the Faculté de Toulouse. In parallel to his career as an 'attaché de direction' at the Banque Française du Commerce Extérieur from 1948 to 1953 then at the société H. Ernaut-Somua, he wrote his first monographs on the towns of La Celle Saint-Cloud then on those of Payrac. Keen on the history of the Languedoc, south-west France and the Ile-de-France and influenced by several historical figures, he produced a large number of monographs and biographies and also frequently organised conferences. Some were presented to members of the Vieilles maisons françaises (V.M.F.), Philippe Loiseleur des Longchamps having joined that association's Lotoise section.

For several years he attended international French-speaking colloquia in the canton of Payrac organised by the Association des écrivains de langue française and its president Edmond Jouve. There he organised an annual conference on subjects linked to literary questions, the history of manufacture, art history and the history of gastronomy. He also followed his wife Simonne Loiseleur des Longchamps Deville (1928–2018), president of the Cercle d'Étude du Gourdonnais from 1989 to 2018 and 'chevalier des Arts et des Lettres' (2011) in the inventory of church furniture of Le Haut-Quercy and as organiser of public exhibitions marking the 'Journées européennes du Patrimoine'. They were both members of the Association de Sauvegarde des Maisons et Paysages du Quercy and in that role were consulted on expanding the "La Bouriane" guide.

Philippe Loiseleur des Longchamps Deville received the knight's cross of the ordre des Arts et des Lettres from Pierre Messmer in September 1997 at the 7th Colloque francophone international du Canton de Payrac (Lot). He died in Toulouse.

Family

The Loiseleur des Longchamps family was an old middle-class family from Thymerais, originally from Brézolles where the author Martin Loiseleur died in 1624. It added the toponym des Longchamps in the 17th century. Early in the 19th century Jean-Joseph Loiseleur-Deslongchamps (Philippe and Louis-Albert's great-grandfather) added Deville to the family name in homage to his mother Basilide-Barthélémie Deville, daughter of a consul in Arles.

Jacques-François Loiseleur-Deslongchamps (1747–1843) was engineer-geographer to the French king and took part in expanding the Cassini maps in the Rouergue and south-west France, whilst Jean-Louis-Auguste Loiseleur-Deslongchamps (1774–1849) was a botanist and member of the Académie de médecine. Jean-Louis-Auguste's second son Auguste Loiseleur-Deslongchamps (1805–1840) was an orientalist and worked in the manuscripts department of the Bibliothèque du Roi. Louis-Albert Loiseleur des Longchamps Deville (1919–2005) was a diplomat.

Selected publications

Biographies and studies on the Loiseleur des Longchamps Deville family La famille Douzon de Bourran d'après ses archives, Paris, privately published, 1962. Portraits de famille, Paris, Les Presses réunies, March 1964. De Cèdre et de rose : vie et œuvre du botaniste Loiseleur-Deslongchamps (1774–1849), La Celle Saint-Cloud, self-published, December 1973, 109 p. Henry Loiseleur des Longchamps mon père (1887–1956), Payrac, privately published, June 1987, 55 p. Inventaire des œuvres des membres de la famille Loiseleur des Longchamps, Payrac, privately published, 1988. Origine de notre famille : Brezolles, Dreux, Payrac, privately published, 1991. Le Docteur et Madame Deville : témoins et acteurs du XIXe siecle, Payrac, privately published, 2002. "Qui était la femme du géographe Loiseleur des Longchamps ?" Revue du Rouergue, 1960, n°53, pp. 69–75. "Deux frères et la Révolution", Revue du Rouergue, 1961, n°58, pp. 190–204. "A propos de Jacques-François Loiseleur des Longchamps", Revue du Rouergue, 1977. "Le botaniste Loiseleur-Deslongchamps et le cèdre du Liban", Actes du Colloque internationale francophone de Payrac, 1996.

Monographs and local history Histoire de H. Ernault-Somua : ses origines, sa double histoire, Paris, Les Presses Réunies, July 1963, 18 x 24 cm, broché, 38 p. + photos, plans etc. (edition of 5000). La Celle Saint-Cloud, cellule d'histoire, Pontoise, Graphédis, April 1979, 254 p. (out of print). Chroniques de Payrac : du Moyen Âge au XIXe siecle, Cahors, Publi Fusion, 1997, 120 p. + 28 p. of photographs and old postcards.

Articles on history

"Le Centenaire H. Ernault-Somua, Les activités industrielles du XIVe arrondissement", Bulletin officiel du Comité municipal des fêtes du XIVe arrondissement de Paris, Paris, October 1963, n°32, pp. 11 and 12, with a sketch of the author "Un voyage aux Grandes Indes en 1818", Revue Maritime, April 1964, n°209. "La naissance d'Alfred Chauchard", Revue du Rouergue, April–June 1965. « Science et foi » (sur Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de Nadaillac), L’écho du Gourdonnais, May 1982, numero 159. "Pèlerinage à Rocamadour au XIX siecle", L’écho du Gourdonnais, November 1982, n°164. Michel Laverret, « Voyage dans l’Empire de Flore en Basse-Marche et en Poitou au XVIIe», Cahiers du GRHAIJ, n°1 – 1998, 420 pp. (supplement to Bulletin n°7, Groupe de recherches historiques et archéologiques de l’Isle-Jourdain), p. 5, on botanist Jean-Louis Auguste Loiseleur des Longchamps. François Nadaud, Payrac de 1900 aux années d’après guerre, La belle endormie, Cahors, December 2014, 444pp, , p. 3 (preface by Bernard Choulet), p. 305 (on the château de Payrac).