CORDIER Palmyr (EN)
Biographical article
Biography
Palmyr Uldéric Alexis Cordier was born on 18 February 1871 in Amancey, near Besançon in the Doubs region, (AD (departmental archives) Doubs, Amancey, 1871, birth certificate no. 3). He was the son of Palmyr Uldéric Cordier (1839–?), an insurance manager, and Marthe Herminie Maréchal (1847–?), a dealer. The couple had had a child the previous year, who died in the second month of his life and who had been given the same first names—Palmyr Uldéric Alexis; he was born on 1 January 1870 and died on 23 February of the same year (AD (departmental archives) Doubs, Amancey, 1870, birth certificate no. 1, death certificate no. 6).
Training
Palmyr Cordier completed his secondary education in Besançon and began to study medicine at the École de Médecine Navale in Toulon; he enlisted in the Fourth Marine Infantry Regiment. In 1890, he joined the École Principale du Service de Santé de la Marine et des Colonies in Bordeaux. He defended his medical doctoral thesis on 26 January 1894 (entitled ‘Étude sur la médecine hindoue : temps védiques et héroïques’, or ‘A study of Hindu medicine: Vedic and heroic times’) and joined the Corps de Santé des Colonies (Héraut, L.-A., 2007). At the same time, he continued with his study of Indo-Iranian languages, Sanskrit, Pali, and ancient Persian, and met Gustave Liétard (1833–1904)—a doctor and pioneer of studies into Indian medicine in France—, who became his master and friend (Roşu, A., 1990).
A colonial doctor
Appointed a Médecin Aide Major Second-Class of the Colonies on 23 February 1894, he embarked at Toulon on a ship bound for Senegal, for an initial eighteen-month overseas mission (Héraut, L.-A., 2007). His second mission took him to Madagascar for one year and here he met Indians and acquired works published in India. Then, when he returned to France he established contacts with circles involved in Indian studies in Paris. Supported by Gustave Liétard, he was able to go on a mission in India, where his work as a Colonies doctor complemented his activity as a researcher (Roşu, A., 1990). In December 1897, he worked at Chandernagore, in Bengal, and shared his time between healthcare services for the population, with which he had established a good reputation, and the study of Bengali and Sanskrit with scholars. He joined the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1898, and then the Société Asiatique de Paris in 1900, with the support of Gustave Liétard. In India, he undertook a journey to the northern half of the country to collect medical manuscripts and had copies made of the manuscripts that he was unable to buy (Filliozat, P.-S., 2014). In Benares, he worked with a doctor and a copyist sent by the Sanskrit College. In Rajasthan, he explored the rich libraries of Bikaner and Jaipur owned by the princely chiefs, discovering more than 300 medical texts. His travels then took him to the Punjab and Cashmere, where he acquired original manuscripts (Filliozat, P.-S., 2014). He also took an interest in Tibetan translations of lost Sanskrit texts and soon attained excellent proficiency with the Tibetan language.
An Indian specialist in Paris
Upon his return to France, he worked on material brought back from India and published landmark studies in the Journal Asiatique and the Annales d’Hygiène et de Médecine Coloniale. His knowledge of Tibetan enabled him to catalogue part of the vast corpus of the Tibetan Tanjur (Catalogue du Fonds Tibétain de la Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1909) and produce a Cours de Tibétain Classique (‘Course in classical Tibetan’, Hanoi, 1907). On 24 August 1909, at the mairie of the 11th arrondissement of Paris, he married Marie Louise Colas, who was born in Anost in Saône-et-Loire on 20 February 1890; she came from a modest family, had lost her father, and lived with her mother on the Boulevard Voltaire in Paris (AP (Paris archives), marital status, marriage certificate). After a second stay in India, Cordier carried out several missions in Indochina, where he was noted for his loyalty, discipline, and goodwill (Héraut, L.-A., 2007). He was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in April 1912 (AN (French national archives) LH/589/60). However, weakened by malaria and his numerous travels, his health deteriorated. Nevertheless, he insisted on enlisting when Germany declared war on France on 3 August 1914. He was quickly taken prisoner in Moselle and was abused, making it difficult for him to recover (Finot, L., 1914). Released as a doctor, he died several days later, on 5 September 1914 in Besançon.
The collection
Assembling the collection
During his missions in India, between 1898 and 1902, Palmyr Cordier gathered a rich ensemble of manuscripts, woodblock prints, and prints, mainly relating to Sanskrit medical texts, with the aim of providing material for his research field (Filliozat, J., 1934). He went on several expeditions to Northern India, in the Valley of the Ganges from Calcutta to Benares, and to Cashmere, the Punjab, and Rajasthan, to visit libraries and make copies of any relevant texts (Filliozat, P.-S., 2014). The collection he assembled comprised more than three hundred manuscripts, two thirds of which include Sanskrit medical texts, and the other third Sanskrit and Bengali literary texts, along with translations of Sanskrit and Tibetan texts (Filliozat, J., 1934). While the medical texts were mainly copies made by Indian paṇḍits on the request of P. Cordier, which he often corrected and annotated, he also purchased older manuscripts, which give this collection a certain historical authenticity.
The acquisition of the collection by the Bibliothèque Nationale
The Cordier Collection was not immediately sold after his death in September 1914, right at the beginning of the War. It was put up for sale in 1932 and spotted by Jean Filliozat (1906–1982) in the stock of a Parisian antique dealer (Filliozat, P. S., 2014, p. 275). Jean Filliozat purchased printed works for his own studies of Indian medicine, and offered the collection of manuscripts to the Bibliothèque Nationale. The Bibliothèque eventually purchased the collection thanks to the request made by Sylvain Lévi (1863–1935) to its administrator Julien Cain (1887–1974) and against the advice of Henri Omont (1857–1940), who was the director at the time of the Département des Manuscrits and considered the lot too expensive to acquire (Letter from S. Lévi to J. Filliozat, quoted by Roçu A., 1990, p. 25, and Filliozat, P. S., 2014, p. 276). The register of acquisitions from the Département des Manuscrits in the BNF (no. 13651) indicates that the purchase was made by the Rockefeller Fund for the sum of 20,000 francs, for an actual estimated price of 30,000 francs, and that it was directly transferred to Marie Louise Colas (1890–1967), his widow, residing at 3 Rue Marie-Louise in Besançon, on 11 August 1932.
Printed works and correspondence
The sixty printed works, annotated by Palmyr Cordier and subsequently by Jean Filliozat, were bequeathed by the latter to the library of the Société Asiatique, where they are now held (the Société Asiatique’s Fonds Jean Filliozat). The collection of manuscripts is held in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in the ‘Sanskrit’ Collection (attributed with the nos. BNF ‘Sanskrit’: 1147 to 1443). The Bengali manuscripts are held in the ‘Fonds Indien’ (BNF ‘Indien’: 965 to 970); Tibetan woodblock prints and translations of Sanskrit or Dharani medical texts acquired in India are held in the ‘Fonds Tibétain’ (‘Tibétain’: 524 to 540). This ensemble is complemented by Palmyr Cordier’s letters sent to Gustave Liétard, held in the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London in the Liétard Collection (see Roçu, A., 1990).
Medical Manuscripts
Palmyr Cordier’s collection of manuscripts mainly comprises copies on paper in Devanāgarī script which he corrected and annotated. There are also original copies on paper, which came, in particular, from Cashmere, and rare copies on palm tree leaves, including an ancient copy of Vāgbhaṭa’s Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā in Malayalam script (BNF ‘Sanskrit’: 1280). This fundamental text used by āyurveda doctors is largely represented in the collection, and several copies are in fact accompanied by commentaries. There are also several copies of Nāgārjuna’s Yogaśataka, a volume of pharmaceutical compositions, including one copied on a Bikaner manuscript accompanied by Rūpanayana’s Sanskrit commentary (BNF ‘Sanskrit’: 1292). The same title, attributed to a work by the doctor Vararūci, is also present, including a copy of an Alwar manuscript produced ‘by the Paṇḍit Gośi Gangādhāra’, according to a handwritten note by Cordier (BNF ‘Sanskrit’: 1196). Another ensemble includes multiple copies, that of the treatises on the science of mercury (Rasaśāstra), such as the Rasaratnākara by Nāgārjuna and Nityanātha, and Rāmarāja’s Rasaratnadīpa (BNF ‘Sanskrit’: 1212). Also worthy of mention is the presence of a manuscript of Bhoja’s Rājamārttaṇḍa on Himalayan Silver Birch bark (Betula bhojpatra) (BNF ‘Sanskrit’ 1225).
Non-medical manuscripts
The hundred or so Sanskrit manuscripts of non-medical texts are mostly on paper and written in Bengali script. Classical poetry is well represented, as is a certain number of large purāṇa, and poetry and philosophical treatises. The dated copies are generally from the nineteenth century, such as the manuscript of the Kramadīpikā by Keśavācārya, dating from 1845 (BNF ‘Sanskrit’: 1365), and the Gītagovinda of Jayadeva, dating from 1803 (BNF ‘Sanskrit’: 1364). Works of Sanskrit grammar, which he probably acquired to help him perfect his knowledge of the language, are also largely present in this ensemble, such as a copy dating from 1804 of the Mugdhabodhavyākaraṇa of Vopadeva (BNF ‘Sanskrit’: 1377). The oldest copy is certainly that of the Yajñavalkyadharmaśāstra, dating from 1789, in Devanāgarī script (BNF ‘Sanskrit’: 1409).
Bengali manuscripts
The ensemble of six manuscripts in the Bengali language includes remarkable copies, such as that of the Gītā-Kalpataru or Pada-Kalpataru, an anthology of more than 3,000 vaiṣṇava poems in Brajabuli and in Middle Bengali (BNF ‘Indien’: 966), dating from 1776 according to the colophon, and a copy of the Bengali version of the Rāmāyaṇa composed by the fifteenth-century Bengali poet Kṛttivās (BNF ‘Indien’: 969). The pertinence of these acquisitions attests to the great familiarity with the Indian world constantly cultivated by Palmyr Cordier during his missions.
