Célestin Port


Célestin Port was a French archivist and historian.

Early life and education

Born in Paris to a modest family, he studied at the École des chartes, composed a thesis entitled Essai sur le commerce maritime de Narbonne '''' and, in 1854, became archivist of the Department of Maine-et-Loire.

Career

Spurred on by his teacher Jules Quicherat, he dedicated forty-seven years of his life to the history of Anjou, on which he published several important works. His masterpiece — often plagiarised — is his "Dictionnaire historique, géographique et biographique de Maine-et-Loire" published in three volumes from 1874 to 1878. He also studied the War in the Vendée.
He worked at the same time on the classification of the departmental archives and, in 1891, he donated his personal collection of archival material to the departmental archives.

Other interests

Célestin Port made no mystery of his militant republican sympathies, but he kept his distance from party politics. His other interests included the theatre and Latin poetry. He also amassed a collection of engravings and photographs.

Publications

  • 3 volumes, also published by Lachèse et Dolbeau, Angers.
  • 40 pp
  • 628pp. Also published by Cosnier et Lachèse