The bookplate from the personal library of Adrienne and Julien Péridier is reproduced on the cover. Julien Péridier (1881-1967), an electrical engineer, received his secondary education from the Collège de Sète in the Pyrenées Orientales department of France, and his higher education at the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures and the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité in Paris. Before World War I he took part in the engineering projects associated with the electrification of the southeast region of France. Between the world wars he participated in the construction and management of public transportation projects for Paris and Toulouse, eventually becoming director-general of the Paris transportation system prior to its nationalization after World War II. In recognition of his contributions, the French government honored him through commission as an officier in the Légion d’Honneur.

            Astronomy, however, offered an irresistible attraction. From the late 1890s he joined the amateur and professional astronomical societies of France, Belgium, England, and the United States. In 1905 he traveled to Spain to observe the total solar eclipse of 30 August. He regularly made variable star observations before World War I. In 1933 he established a private observatory at Le Houga in the Department of Gers about 123 kilometers southeast of Bordeaux and 133 kilometers west of Toulouse. His facilities included two domes, one housing an 8-inch visual and photographic double refractor with Couder optics, and the other a 12-inch Calver reflector. The observatory buildings contained a darkroom, office and laboratory space, a workshop, living quarters, and his scientific library. Auxiliary equipment was set up in Les Arousettes, his country home in Le Houga. The research results obtained under the direction of Péridier by visiting astronomers and students were published in the Annales de l’Observatoire Houga, as well as scientific journals, and reprinted in the Publications series of the observatory.¹

            The areas of research carried out at Le Houga included planetary and stellar photometry, and observations of variable stars, double stars, flare stars, and galaxies. In 1959 Le Houga became a station for a Harvard College Observatory expedition to observe the occultation of Regulus by Venus. Later, Péridier collaborated with Professor D. H. Menzel, director of HCO, on a NASA-supported 5-year program of multicolor photoelectric photometry of the moon and planets. This was to be the last major piece of research performed under the directorship of Péridier.²

            Adrienne Blanc-Péridier was accomplished in the belles lettres. She wrote more than thirty one-act plays (including musicals), romantic novels, biographies, and books directed toward youth. Her most productive time came after the move to Le Houga. The title of one play (La aleçon d’astronomie, Comédie en un acte) humorously reveals her observations of her husband’s activities. Her death, in 1965, ended nearly fifty years of marriage.

            The Péridier Library was a result of a lifetime of collecting and included a wide range of subjects. It consisted of over 1,500 volumes, with about 600 reflecting Péridier’s interests in astronomy, astrophysics, astronomical optics, and stellar photometry. The remainder encompassed mathematics, relativity, classical and modern physics, optics, electricity, radio, meteorology, geophysics, and a substantial number of classical works in philosophy, history, and literature. The ephemerides contained in the collection included the Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes beginning with the 1832 edition, the Annuaire Flammarion starting in 1897, and the Connaissance des Temps since 1934. The collection included nearly complete publication series of the major observatories of the world.³ Péridier also subscribed to a number of scientific journals. “His astronomical and scientific library was always maintained up to date and professional astronomers would occasionally appeal to him for the loan of hard to get publications, in particular during the war.”⁴

            Acting on the recommendation of Professor G. de Vaucouleurs, a former collaborator of Péridier, now at the University of Texas at Austin, Péridier bequested his library and astronomical instruments to “the University of Texas to assist in the development of the teaching facilities of the Department of Astronomy and McDonald Observatory.”⁵ The Péridier collection has formed the nucleus of the McDonald Observatory’s research library located in Austin. Owing to its superb coverage of early twentieth century astronomy, its journals and observatory publications are an indispensable tool to research and graduate-level studies. This collection of data, in the form of published observations, will never become obsolete in astronomy.

            Research has not revealed when the Péridier bookplate was designed. The engraver is Adolpe Giraldon (1855-1933), a noted artist and bookplate designer. His interests encompassed all aspects of the bookmaker’s art. In addition to text illustrations, he designed end papers and covers for over 400 published books. The type font Giraldon-Antiquatype is his creation.⁶

            In the Péridier bookplate the interests of the owners are made obvious by the scene of the northern nighttime sky in the center of the design and the lyre at its base. The constellations of Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia, and Draco are visible. An accentuated rendering of the Milky Way is seen above the mountains, which probably represent the Pyrenees, visible from Le Houga, but artistically moved to the northern horizon. Surrounding the celestial scene, the motto on the ribbon, POESIS PERSPICIT AD COELVM (poetry looks toward heaven), probably reflects an intermingling of Madame Péridier’s interests as a poet and playwright and her husband’s astronomical endeavors. The ornate lyre festooned by floral sprays is probably prompted by her literary interests. The bookplate engraving measures 5 x 6.5 cm and is printed in blue on white stock, with gold used to accentuate the lyre strings, create the flower stamens, and form a square backdrop of circles.

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