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    "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)",
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    "chunk_id": "1911:gervais:f68e5f3eda28",
    "title": "GERVAIS",
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    "verified_text": "gervais, paul (1816-1879), french palaeontologist, was born on the 26th of september 1816 at paris, where he obtained the diplomas of doctor of science and of medicine, and in 1835 he began palaeontological research as assistant in the laboratory of comparative anatomy at the museum of natural history. in 1841 he obtained the chair of zoology and comparative anatomy at the faculty of sciences in montpellier, of which he was in 1856 appointed dean. in 1848-1852 appeared his important work _zoologie et paleontologie francaises_, supplementary to the palaeontological publications of g. cuvier and h. m. d. de blainville; of this a second and greatly improved edition was issued in 1859. in 1865 he accepted the professorship of zoology at the sorbonne, vacant through the death of l. p. gratiolet; this post he left in 1868 for the chair of comparative anatomy at the paris museum of natural history, the anatomical collections of which were greatly enriched by his exertions. he died in paris on the 10th of february 1879. he also wrote _histoire naturelle des mammiferes_ (1853, &c.); _zoologie medicale_ (1859, with p. j. van beneden); _recherches sur l'anciennete de l'homme et la periode quaternaire_, 19 pl. (1867); _zoologie et paleontologie generales_ (1867); _osteographie des cetaces_ (1869, &., with van beneden). gervase of canterbury (d. c. 1210), english monk and chronicler, entered the house of christchurch, canterbury, at an early age. he made his profession and received holy orders in 1163; but we have no further clue to the date of his birth. we know nothing of his life beyond what may be gathered from his own writings. their evidence suggests that he died in or shortly after 1210, and that he had resided almost continuously at canterbury from the time of his admission. the only office which we know him to have held is that of sacrist, which he received after 1190 and laid down before 1197. he took a keen interest in the secular quarrels of the canterbury monks with their archbishops, and his earliest literary efforts were controversial tracts upon this subject. but from 1188 he applied his mind to historical composition. about that year he began the compilation of his _chronica_, a work intended for the private reading of his brethren. beginning with the accession of stephen he continued his narrative to the death of richard i. up to 1188 he relies almost entirely upon extant sources; but from that date onwards is usually an independent authority. a second history, the _gesta regum_, is planned on a smaller scale and traces the fortunes of britain from the days of brutus to the year 1209. the latter part of this work, covering the years 1199-1209, is perhaps an attempt to redeem the promise, which he had made in the epilogue to the _chronica_, of a continuation dealing with the reign of john. this is the only part of the _gesta_ which deserves much attention. the work was continued by various hands to the year 1328. from the _gesta_ the indefatigable gervase turned to a third project, the history of the see of canterbury from the arrival of augustine to the death of hubert walter (1205). a topographical work, with the somewhat misleading title _mappa mundi_, completes the list of his more important writings. the _mappa mundi_ contains a useful description of england shire by shire, giving in particular a list of the castles and religious houses to be found in each. the industry of gervase was greater than his insight. he took a narrow and monastic view of current politics; he was seldom in touch with the leading statesmen of his day. but he appears to be tolerably accurate when dealing with the years 1188-1209; and sometimes he supplements the information provided by the more important chronicles. see the introductions and notes in w. stubbs's edition of the _historical works of gervase of canterbury_ (rolls edition, 2 vols., 1879-1880). (h. w. c. d.) gervase of tilbury (fl. 1211), anglo-latin writer of the late 12th and early 13th centuries, was a kinsman and schoolfellow of patrick, earl of salisbury, but lived the life of a scholarly adventurer, wandering from land to land in search of patrons. before 1177 he was a student and teacher of law at bologna; in that year he witnessed the meeting of the emperor frederic i. and pope alexander iii. at venice. he may have hoped to win the favour of frederic, who in the past had found useful instruments among the civilians of bologna. but frederic ignored him; his first employer of royal rank was henry fitz henry, the young king of england (d. 1183), for whom gervase wrote a jest-book which is no longer extant. subsequently we hear of gervase as a clerk in the household of william of champagne, cardinal archbishop of reims (d. 1202). here, as he himself confesses, he basely accused of heretical opinions a young girl, who had rejected his advances, with the result that she was burned to death. he cannot have remained many years at reims; before 1189 he attracted the favour of william ii. of sicily, who had married joanna, the sister of henry fitz henry. william took gervase into his service and gave him a country-house at nola. after william's death the kingdom of sicily offered no attractions to an englishman. the fortunes of gervase suffered an eclipse until, some time after 1198, he found employment under the emperor otto iv., who by descent and political interest was intimately connected with the plantagenets. though a clerk in orders gervase became marshal of the kingdom of arles, and married an heiress of good family. for the delectation of the emperor he wrote, about 1211, his _otia imperialia_ in three parts. it is a farrago of history, geography, folklore and political theory--one of those books of table-talk in which the literature of the age abounded. evidently gervase coveted but ill deserved a reputation for encyclopaedic learning. the most interesting of his dissertations are contained in the second part of the _otia_, where he discusses, among other topics, the theory of the empire and the geography and history of england. we do not know what became of gervase after the downfall of otto iv. but he became a canon; and may perhaps be identified with gervase, provost of ebbekesdorf, who died in 1235. see the _otia imperialia_ in g. leibnitz's _scriptores rerum brunsvicensium_, vols. i. and ii. (hanover, 1707); extracts in j. stevenson's edition of _coggeshall_ (rolls series, 1875). of modern accounts the best are those by w. stubbs in his edition of _gervase of canterbury_, vol. i. introd. (rolls series, 1879), and by r. pauli in _nachrichten der gesellschaft der wissenschaften zu gottingen_ (1882). in the older biographers the _dialogus de scaccario_ of richard fitz neal (q.v.) is wrongly attributed to gervase. (h. w. c. d.)",
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