Eugène Piot (1812-1890) publiciste et éditeur

Eugène Piot (1812-1890), publicist as well as publisher. Eugène Piot, mainly known as a collector, equally had an important career as a publisher. With the Cabinet de l’amateur et de l’antiquaire — published from 1842 to 1846, then from 1861 to 1863 —, he had the ambition of educating the amateur, as well as contributing to the history of art. However, both the lack of financial means and of intellectual accuracy prevented Piot from carrying out this innovating programe, even if this review had a leading place among the first periodicals devoted to arts. Various polemics kept him busy, no doubt to his disadvantage. Besides, he had too many publishing ventures on the go, which often remained in the state of schemes. As early as 1851, he took part in the development of photographic illustration in books about architecture and sculpture, mainly for Antiquity. The desire of making a profit out of his publications and of drawing the esteem of erudites thwarted Piot’s editorial ambitions which, nevertheless, revealed how close the scholar was to the amateur.