Queer Places:
Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Paris, City of Paris,
Île-de-France, France
Gustave Fallot (17 November 1807 – 6 July 1836) was a French philologist.
Born into a family of Protestant merchants, allied with that of Cuvier, Gustave Fallot, son of Jacques-Frédéric Fallot and Catherine Tuefferd, was placed by his father as soon as he left college with an ironmaster from Gray, Jean-Baptiste Jobard. Fallot had no taste for commerce, and his only consolation was reading: he spent most of his time in Gray's public library. In 1829 he contacted Charles Weiss, curator of the library of Besançon, who made him join the printer Gauthier where he was responsible for revising and correcting the works to be published, while continuing his studies. There he became friends with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. In June 1831, he went to Paris with letters of recommendation from Charles Weiss. He lived badly, small literary works and articles in newspapers. In 1832, he received a pension from the Academy of Besançon, in the amount of 1,500 francs, payable for three years, founded by the widow of Jean Baptiste Suard "in favor of young Francs-Comtois without fortune who are destined for the career of Letters". In 1833 he entered the École royale des chartes; in July 1834, he was appointed secretary of the Committee on the History of France by François Guizot. In December 1834 he obtained the diploma of archivist-paleographer (being the first valedictorian of the École des chartes) and was appointed sub-librarian of the Institute of France. He devoted himself tirelessly to scholarly work: he completed his manuscripton the origins of the French language and proposed in particular to write a genealogical history of the human species by languages, and a study on the Slavic language and literature. Suffering from cholera during the epidemic of 1832, very weakened, he died at the age of 29, on July 6, 1836 of a cerebral congestion, following an attack of measles. A lively friendship bound him to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who, asked to write his biography, limited himself to saluting his memory in a letter in which he exalts his qualities.
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