Sulawi, Jean Louis Giraud

Born July 8, 1751 in the city of Largentiere of the Ardeche department in a rural bourgeois family.

Being interested in science and history since childhood, at the age of 11, Jean Louis made a tour of the outskirts of Vinzac (Ardeche department), where there are many exposures of limestone and sandstone. In 1771-1776 he studied at Avignon at the College of St. Nicholas and at the seminary of the Holy Spirit. In 1772-1775 he traveled several times through the Central French Massif .

At the end of the seminary, he received the rank of priest and in 1777 was sent to the south of France - to the city of Antreg , where at the same time he continued to study the Central French Massif in the provinces of Vivar (department of Ardèche ) and Vele (department of Haute-Loire ). As a result, Sulawi compiled a relief map of the Vivar province and a regional stratigraphic diagram based on the lithological composition of the rocks. He reported on his research to the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1777.

In 1778, Sulawi settled in Paris, where he met with Georges-Louis Buffon . From the capital of Jeanie, Louis continued to travel to the extinct volcanoes of the Central French Massif (1780-1781). In 1780, he was engaged in the publication of his essay on the geological history of the province of Vivar - Ge´ographie de la nature, ou description des trois re`gnes sur la terre . In 1779, at a meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Sulawi presented a manuscript of his main scientific work on the natural history of Southern France - L'histoire naturelle de la France me´ridionale , which was published in eight volumes in 1780-1784. After the publication of the first volumes, he was criticized by clerics, but escaped prosecution for dissent. In 1787 he received a place as a cure in Normandy and in 1788 became the chief vicar in the city of Chalon-en-Champagne .

During the French Revolution, Sulawi refused the dignity of a priest. From June 1793 he was ambassador of France to the Republic of Geneva. In September 1794 he was recalled and arrested. After being released from imprisonment in 1795, Jean Louis Sulawi was engaged in social and political activities, and his interests included Russia.

Sulawi’s relationship with the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts began with his participation in the traditional competition for solving academic problems. In 1783, the classification of rocks and minerals was set by the Academy of Sciences as one of the topics of competition, and Sulawi submitted a competition entitled “Les classes naturelles des mine´raux et les e´poques de la nature correspondantes a chaque classe” for the competition. His work was awarded the second prize in 1785 and published in St. Petersburg in 1786. On March 20, 1786, at a Russian academic meeting, his letter was read out, which reported on the mineralogical studies and expressed a desire to be elected to the Academy. March 23, Jean Louis Giro Sulawi was elected a corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts. The activities of Sulawi played a role in maintaining good neighborly relations between France and Russia. As a diplomat , he dreamed of an alliance between France and Russia against Austria and England, and in 1795 presented to the Directory a draft of such an alliance.

Interestingly, Sulawi never became a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris; he was elected in 1783 only to the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Fine Literature. Since 1785, he was a member of the Royal Society of Physics, Natural History and the Arts of Orleans.

He died on March 11, 1813 in Paris, was buried in the Vaujiran cemetery.

• Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences of the 18th – 21st centuries: Geology and mining. / Ans. Editor I. G. Malakhova. 2012, ISBN 978-5-904509-08-8 (electronic version).

• Jean-Louis Soulavie (Fr.)
• Giraud-Sulawi Jean-Louis - Giraud-Soulavie Jean-Louis (Russian) (French)