EMERIC  -

DAVID, TOUSSAINT - BERNARD (1755-1839), French archaeologist and writer on art, was born at Aix, in Provence,.on the loth of August 1755 . He was destined for the legal profession, and having gone in 1775 to Paris to complete his legal education, he acquired there a taste for art which influenced his whole future career, and he went to Italy, where he continued his art studies . He soon returned, however, to his native village, and followed for some time the profession of an advocate; but in 1787 he succeeded his uncle Antoine David as printer to the parlement . He was elected mayor of Aix in 1791; and although he speedily resigned his office, he was in 1793 threatened with arrest, and had for some time to adopt a vagrant life . When danger was past he returned to Aix, sold his printing business, and engaged in general commercial ,pursuits; but he was not long in renouncing these also, in order to devote himself exclusively to literature and art . From 1809 to 1814, under the Empire, he represented his department in the Lower House (Corps legislatif); in 1814 he voted for the downfall of Napoleon; in 1815 he retired into private life, and in 1816 he was elected a member of the Institute . He died in Paris on the 2nd of April 1839 . Emeric-David was placed in 1825 on the commission appointed to continue L'Histoire litteraire de la France . His principal works are Recherches sur fart statuaire, considers chez les anciens et les modernes (Paris, 18o5), a work which obtained the prize of the Institute; Suite d'etudes calquees et dessinees d'apres cinq tableaux de Raphael (Paris, 1818-1821), in 6 vols. fol.; Jupiter, ou recherches sur ce dieu, sur son culte, &c . (Paris, 1833),2 vols . 8vo, illustrated; and Vulcain (Paris,1837) .