PORTIER (Paul) - Lot 223

Lot 223
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PORTIER (Paul) - Lot 223
PORTIER (Paul) Bar-sur-Seine, 1866 - Paris, 1962. French physiologist and biologist, co-discoverer, with Charles Richet, of the phenomenon of anaphylaxis. Autograph letter signed "P. Portier", addressed to "Mon cher Franck". Bar-sur-Seine, October 1, 1954. 2 pages in-8, on Institut océanographique letterhead, vignette. A letter of great intellectual interest, revealing a scholarly and literary facet of the scholar, around a discussion devoted to the Odyssey and the episode of Ulysses' bow. Portier responds to some of his correspondent's skepticism by sending him a copy of Anne Dacier's translation of the episode, while mentioning a parallel version by Charles-Marie Leconte de Lisle that he keeps in Paris. The letter is especially noteworthy for the development devoted to Louis Ménard, whom Portier describes as an exceptional mind, a Latinist and Hellenist "without rival", as well as a chemist who contributed to Marcellin Berthelot's work on explosives. This portrait, nourished by personal recollections, testifies to the richness of the intellectual networks Portier frequented. He also recalls an impromptu lecture on the Odyssey, the outline of which he proposes to rediscover, humorously summing up his interpretation: "Ulysses was the Tartarin of Antiquity". It's an amusing expression of the scholar's free, iconoclastic spirit. In the margin, a biographical essay recalls the singular career of Louis Ménard, Charles Baudelaire's former classmate who switched from literature to chemistry, and his role in the experiments of the "Hashischins Club". A rich and original document, at the crossroads of science, philology and literature, revealing the breadth of Paul Portier's intellectual curiosities.
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