Antony Méray

Antony Méray was a French writer and medievalist, born in Chalon-sur-Saône in 1817.  His career as a writer began in 1847 with a short story in verse, which was followed by several novels, but he is better known for his collaboration with Eugène Nus on the text of a series of whimsical illustrated books which imagined vegetables, flowers or butterflies as human characters. The most popular of these was Les Papillons (1852), largely because of the many beautiful plates by Amédée Varin.  Méray also published a number of more serious works including several on the middle ages.   He was a great bibliophile and wrote a number of articles on various associated topics.  He probably died in 1888 or 1889.