Paul Raymond, born Paul-Raymond Lechien, was a French archivist and historian born on 8 September 1833 in Belleville and died on 27 September 1878.
His Life
Admitted in 1854 to the École Nationale des Chartes, there he obtained a degree of "Archivist paléographe" in 1857 with a thesis entitled On the looting of the house and property of the bishop . He then became the departmental archivist for Basses-Pyrenees after finishing at the École Nationale des Chartes until 1877. He was then appointed Secretary General of the Prefecture of the Lower Pyrenees. He was also Secretary General of the "Society of Sciences, Letters and Arts of Pau" from 1871 to 1877 and president of this society in 1877. He was a convinced republican "paying relentless personal attention to all works for the public good and popular education. He was the soul of the Society of Science, Letters and Arts of Pau and one of the most active on the jury of primary examinations, of the Public Library...". He was a tireless researcher who undertook a general inventory of the Departmental Archives of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. From this research, he drew many materials that were published or used in many works of historical and linguistic research. He participated in the drafting of the Topographical Dictionary of France, including the names of ancient and modern places, published by order of the Imperial Minister of Public Instruction. The volume that he wrote: the Topographical Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees was published for the first time in 1863. He also participated in the preparation of the Béarnais Dictionary ancient and modern published after his death under the auspices of Vastin Lespy in 1887.
Writings
Research
The following materials attributed to Paul Raymond are available to researchers in the reading rooms of the departmental archives and libraries:
Brief inventory of the departmental records prior to 1790, Basses-Pyrenees, 6 volumes, Paris, P. Dupont.
Topographical Dictionary of the department of Basses-Pyrénées, 1863, Paris, Imprimerie Imperial XX, 208 pages.
Seals of the Archives for the department of Basses-Pyrénées, 1874, L. Ribaut, 385 p. Illustrated.
Béarnais Dictionary ancient and modern, published by V. Lespy, V. Lespy and P. Raymond, 1887, Montpellier, impr. Hamelin brothers, 2 vols. in 8 volumes.
Studies
Notices on the stewardship of Béarn and the States of that province, with a catalogue of noble houses, 1866, Paris.
A Bearnais baron in the 15th century, Gaston de Foix, Lord of Coarraze, In collaboration with Valentin Lespy, béarnais and vernacular texts, 1878, the Society of Bibliophiles Béarn.
Stories of religious history in Bearnais, traditional and published for the first time on the fifteenth century manuscript by V. Lespy and P. Raymond, bibliophile society of Béarn.
Numerous other studies, see the list in the Bulletin of the Society of Science, Letters and Arts of Pau, Volume 8, 1878–1879, p. 12-14, available at the website Gallica
