1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beulé, Charles Ernest

BEULÉ, CHARLES ERNEST (1826–1874), French archaeologist and politician, was born at Saumur on the 29th of June 1826. He was educated at the École Normale, and after having held the professorship of rhetoric at Moulins for a year, was sent to Athens in 1851 as one of the professors in the École Française there. He had the good fortune to discover the propylaea of the Acropolis, and his work, L’Acropole d’Athènes (2nd ed., 1863), was published by order of the minister of public instruction. On his return to France, promotion and distinctions followed rapidly upon his first successes. He was made doctor of letters, chevalier of the Legion of Honour, professor of archaeology at the Bibliothèque Impériale, member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and perpetual secretary of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. He took great interest in political affairs, with which the last few years of his life were entirely occupied. Elected a member of the National Assembly in 1871, he zealously supported the Orleanist party. In May-November 1873 he was minister of the interior in the Broglie ministry. He died by his own hand on the 4th of April 1874. His other important works are: Études sur le Péloponnèse (2nd ed., 1875); Les Monnaies d’Athènes (1858); L’Architecture au siècle de Pisistrate (1860); Fouilles à Carthage (1861). Beulé was also the author of high-class popular works on artistic and historical subjects: Histoire de l’art grec avant Périclès (2nd ed., 1870); Le Procès des Césars (1867–1870, in four parts; Auguste, sa famille et ses amis; Tibère et l’héritage d’Auguste; Le Sang de Germanicus; Titus et sa dynastie).

See Ideville, Monsieur Beulé, Souvenirs personnels (1874).